A MOUTH FULL OF SALT

247pp., paperback, Saqi Books, London, 2025

ISBN: 9781849250900

Winner of the 2023 Island Prize.

A novel about the intertwined lives of three women faced with injustice, set in a small farming village in north Sudan.

"An impressive debut from a writer with plenty to say. A lean, lithe exposure of hatred and hardship, cruelty and retribution, community secrets and the stark otherworldly power of motherhood. I was gripped until the very last sentence." Leila Aboulela, author of River Spirit

"A vivid, beautifully written and transportive read. Gaafar's powerful female characters show how women dealt the weakest hands claim small victories through tenacity and strength of spirit. I loved it." Rosalind Russell, author of The End of Where We Begin

Reem Gaafar is a writer, physician and filmmaker. Her fiction and non-fiction writing has appeared in African Arguments, African Feminism, Teakisi Magazine and International Health Policies, and in the anthologies I Know Two Sudans and Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices. She lives in Ontario, Canada.