Only in London

First edition in English. 8vo. Pp. [viii], 276, [2 (blank)], [2]. Black cloth boards, lettered in gilt to spine; buttercup yellow endpapers. Jacket design by Nathan Burton. Integral black silk bookmark. A Note on the Author.

Translated from the Arabic by Catherine Cobham. BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.

Four people seeking love and liberty in London's burgeoning Arab community. The offspring of a strict Lebanese Shia family, displaced from home by her country's Civil War, al-Shaykh's challenging books to traditional Arabic social strictures, are banned by most regimes in the region. "As the story follows their adventures, some comic, some pathetic, each character finds a different London... [al-Shaykh's] novel is funny and beautifully written. She has a perfect ear for dialogue and tone." –Sunday Telegraph