THE EXTRAORDINARY INTERNATIONAL SENSATIONSalomé Abergel has vanished. One of Europe's most celebrated artists, she is at the pinnacle of her career – and yet no one has any idea where she might be: dead, on the run, or simply staging one final disappearing act in a life that has always been shrouded in mystery?An unlikely group is drawn into the search. There is Irad Abergel, Salomé's estranged son returning reluctantly to Amsterdam and the memory of a mother he has long tried to forget. There is Yousef Slaoui, a drunk whose connection to the artist reaches back into the darkest moments of Morocco’s history. And there is Hind el Arian, part-time waitress and full-time stoner, who somehow finds herself guarding Salomé's home – and a basement filled with the most extraordinary paintings she has ever seen. Their intertwining tales take them from the smoke-filled cafés of the Netherlands to the rowdy bars of Paris, and from the sun-bleached streets of Tunis to the wide desolation of the Sahara . . . One of the most acclaimed and bestselling European debuts in modern memory, Safae el Khannoussi’s Oroppa announces the arrival of a literary star: sweeping, exhilarating and profoundly original, it is an unforgettable novel about Europe and North Africa, the people who move between them, and the histories, wounds and dreams that shape their lives.
