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From an acclaimed African writer, a novel about family, freedom, and loyalty.When Bella learns of the murder of her beloved half brother by political extremists in Mogadiscio, shes in Rome. The two had different fathers but shared a Somali mother, from whom Bellas inherited her freewheeling ways. An internationally known fashion photographer, dazzling but aloof, she comes and goes as she pleases, juggling three lovers. But with her teenage niece and nephew effectively orphaned their mother abandoned them years agoshe feels an unfamiliar surge of protective feeling. Putting her life on hold, she journeys to Nairobi, where the two are in boarding school, uncertain whether she canor mustcome to their rescue. When their mother resurfaces, reasserting her maternal rights and bringing with her a gale of chaos and confusion that mirror the deepening political instability in the region, Bella has to decide how far she will go to obey the call of sisterly responsibility.