Finalist for the National Book Award 2019

An Observer, Literary Review and Time Book of the Year

‘One of the most affecting novels I have read. Subtle, wise and full of humanity’ The Times

Late one spring night, Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant in California, is walking across a darkened intersection when he is killed by a speeding car. The repercussions of his death bring together a diverse cast of characters, deeply divided by race, religion and class. As the characters tell their stories and the mystery unfolds, Driss’s family is forced to confront its secrets, a town faces its hypocrisies, and love, in all its messy and unpredictable forms, is born.

‘A state-of-America family saga told as a slow-burn detective story’ Observer

‘Exceptionally rich’ Sunday Times

‘Confirms Lalami’s reputation as one of our most sensitive interrogators, probing at the faultlines in family and the wider world’ Financial Times