In this richly unnerving tale about family secrets and expectations, two sisters are at lifelong odds with each other, their mother, and themselves—and as every hour becomes more twisted than the last, they are all pushed to their breaking point.
Lovely and Beauty know their place: at home, beneath the watchful eye of their mother. Life has never included friends, an education, or anything the sisters can call their own. Their comings and goings are supervised by Farida. Otherwise, they don’t come and go at all.
That changes on Lovely’s fortieth birthday. In a stroke of inexplicable fortune, Farida permits her eldest daughter to go to the Gausia Market alone, with no instructions but to abide by her curfew. For once on her own, Lovely is goaded by the voice in her head to push her mother’s—and her own—boundaries.
New experiences and old memories abound as her family awaits her return. But with the taste of freedom so fresh on her tongue, Lovely is spurred on by her disembodied companion to hang on to her newfound independence. When home isn’t a safe haven, Lovely must find somewhere else to turn.
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“Taut, unsettling, and at times wickedly funny, this sly novel will hold you in its thrall until the very last page.”
— Ash Davidson, author of Damnation Spring
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Leesa Gazi is a Bangladeshi British author, theater practitioner, award-winning filmmaker, and joint artistic director of the London-based arts organization Komola Collective. She has dedicated her career to presenting stories from women’s perspectives. Multiple plays that she has written and translated have toured nationally and internationally. She was the cowriter and performer of the play Birangona: Women of War, nominated for the UK’s Offies Award, which she later developed into the documentary feature Rising Silence, which sheds light on the lives of sexual violence survivors in the aftermath of the Bangladesh liberation war. She has written, performed, and created content for many prestigious venues and organizations.
Sneha Mathan is a voice actor and audiobook narrator. Her audiobook work has received several Earphones awards, and she is a three-time Audie Award finalist. She lives in Seattle.