Ground the author traces the scars

the author traces the scars and strength of a childhood disrupted by colonial violence in Kenya

which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream

Through vivid storytelling

must-have debut that announces Abbas as a powerful new voice in fiction

From his balcony in Hackney he talks to his beautiful neighbour Telma telling her his story

Ground the author traces the scarsIt all starts with a fire. Seven children, asleep in a big house in the Italian countryside. A forgotten candle. Their parents are not there. They are in a different country, a different continent, Africa, where other siblings are growing as part of the same family but in an entirely different life. Without their parents, the children feel dispersed, trying to keep hold of each other. Now in his forties, Redesof works as an acupuncturist in post