Nuri is a young boy when his mother dies. It seems that nothing will fill the emptiness her strange death leaves behind. Until Mona.

When Nuri first sees Mona, the rest of the world vanishes. But it is Nuri's father with whom Mona falls in love and whom she will eventually marry. Their happiness consumes Nuri to the point at which he longs to get his father out of the way. However, Nuri will soon regret what he wished for. As the world he shares with his stepmother is shattered by events beyond their control, they both begin to realize how little they really knew about the man they loved.

In a delicately wrought and beautifully tender voice, Hisham Matar's extraordinary new novel asks, When a loved one disappears how does his or her absence shape the lives of those who are left?