The Cry Of The Dove

The English doctor tells Salma that she must forget her past. But how can she when it has followed her all the way from her tiny Bedouin village to this place in England “where the river meets the sea”? Salma has violated the laws of her tribe by becoming pregnant before marriage; to restore their honour, the villagers must kill her. Salma is imprisoned for her own protection, her baby torn from her arms. Years later, when it seems her persecutors have given up the chase, Salma is smuggled out of prison and finds exile in Exeter, England. But now, living by her Immigrant Survival Guide, Salma finds a prison of another kind. Trying to navigate the cultural divide between a permissive and often racist contemporary Western society and her traditional tribal Muslim upbringing, Salma perseveres and creates a new life. But the cries of her lost child will not be silenced; she is driven to return to her childhood village in a shattering journey that will change everythingand nothing.

Slipping seamlessly between the olive groves of the Levant and the rain-slicked streets of England, Cry of the Dove is a searing novel of forbidden love, violated honour and a woman’s courage in the face of insurmountable odds.