Maryam & Son

A LITERARY NOVEL ABOUT MOTHERHOOD AND DESIRE, TOLD THROUGH THE COMPELLING PERSPECTIVE OF A MOTHER FORCED TO QUESTION EVERYTHING SHE BELIEVES ABOUT HER CHILD AND HERSELF.

‘Dil was a clever young man who didn’t moan all the time like some other boys did, although he did spend far too much time cooped inside, on that damn computer of his, but she supposed it was better than having him out all the time. At least, this way she knew where he was.’

Maryam Ali, a school chef and widow, finds her son’s bed empty one morning. At her sisters’ insistence, she reports him missing, hoping the police will bring him home. Instead, government officials arrive with news that her Dil might be far away from London and involved in something almost unimaginable.

As the days pass and the waiting gets more and more intolerable, despite the fierce support of her mother and sisters, Maryam retreats into the past, seeking answers for the present. Unexpectedly, she also finds herself forming a connection with Julian, the young family liaison officer assigned to her case-a bond complicated by his role in the machinery that watches her son.

While American bombs fall on Mosul, where she’s told her son is, Maryam must confront the ultimate question-how does one grieve the absence of a child one may never have truly known? Politically urgent and deeply personal, Maryam & Son is a powerful exploration of motherhood, desire, surveillance and identity in the fragile and uncertain world we live in today.