Mouth Full of Salt

Description: The Nile brings them life, but the Nile also takes away.

A small farming village in North Sudan wakes up one morning to the news that a little boy has drowned. Soon after, the animals die of a mysterious illness and the date gardens catch fire and burn to the ground. The villagers whisper of a sorceress who dwells at the foot of the mountains. It is the dry season. The men have places to go, the women have work to do, the children play at the place where the river runs over its own banks. Sixteen-year-old Fatima yearns to leave the village for Khartoum.

In Khartoum, a single mother makes her way in a world that wants to keep girls and women back. As civil war swells, the political intrudes into the personal and her position in the capital becomes untenable. She must return to the village.

A Mouth Full of Salt uncovers a country on the brink of seismic change as its women decide for themselves which traditions are fit for purpose - and which prophecies it's time to rewrite

Brief description: 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. Her debut novel A Mouth Full of Salt won the Island Prize in
2023.

Gaafar lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband and three sons.

Review Quotes:

'Lively and engaging ... Gaafar's village characters are vivid and skillfully drawn ... A Mouth Full of Salt gives up its secrets slowly, a trait that only enhances the reading pleasure of this intricate jewel of a novel.' --New Internationalist

'A Mouth Full of Salt skillfully recounts the nuanced history of two countries that were divided long before they had any say in the matter. Gaafar approaches this narrative with compassion, confronting uncomfortable truths head-on.' --The New Arab

'Gaafar tells the intertwined stories of three women who are confronted with injustice. A conversation about responsible writing, role models and the forgotten war in Sudan.' --Qantara

'A riveting debut novel .. A Mouth Full of Salt captivates from the first line with its intoxicating mix of high intrigue, socio-political commentary and (post)colonial history.' --Afropean Magazine

'A stunning, powerful story of a community in the north of Sudan, struck by calamity and loss.' --Samia Aziz

'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

'A riveting novel which brings alive the vibrations of village life ... the story is so beautifully and grippingly told that once started, it is difficult to put down.' --Francis Mading Deng, author of Cry of the Owl

'This beautiful novel tells the story of all of Sudan - its rituals, joys and sorrows, full and dry nights, stability and displacements.' --Amir Tag Elsir, author of The Grub Hunter

'An impressive debut. I was gripped until the very last sentence.' --Leila Aboulela