Some of the parts are pages long, others just a brief paragraph, a glimpse of a scene We see her in the hills herding goats, as a love-struck teenager, and then are abruptly brought back into the bleakness of her present circumstance. The author, Fadia Faqir, tells the story as a mosaic, showing us small parts of Salma’s life in seemingly disjointed order. There she works as a seamstress and lives struggling for existence, for a way out of poverty and ignorance and fear. She is happy in Lebanon, but word comes that her family has traced her there, and she is persuaded to flee to England under a new name, Sally Asher. An English nun who rescues girls like her offered to take her to a convent in Lebanon, to live and be safe from her brother who intends to kill her to absolve the stain on their family’s name. She learned to sew and stayed in the prison for six years. In prison for her safety, she gave birth to a girl who was immediately taken away from her. She turned to her teacher for help, who saved her life only by turning her over to the police. She was forced to emigrate after bringing dishonor to her family by having a child out of wedlock. The book is about Salma, a Bedouin Arab woman who is now called Sally and lives in Exeter, England.
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