This is an Algerian novel that initially resembles a murder mystery but gradually becomes a wider exploration of family secrets, political memory, violence, and moral compromise. The story is set mainly in the Algerian city of Bou Saada in 1990, shortly before the political crisis that would lead into the country’s Black Decade. It moves repeatedly between the present investigation and memories extending back through the post-independence period, the Algerian War of Independence, and the Second World War.
The novel begins with Aqila Toumi detained in a police cell. Her husband, Makhlouf Toumi, has died in suspicious circumstances. At first, his death appears to have been caused by a road accident involving a Renault 4, but the investigators discover that he had been poisoned before the crash. Aqila immediately becomes a suspect because she had strong reasons to resent him, because she possesses medical knowledge, and because their professional lives were connected in ethically troubling ways.
Aqila is a respected ophthalmologist. Her husband worked with corpses in a hospital morgue. Together, they participated in an illegal scheme involving the removal of corneas from dead bodies. Aqila used the corneas to restore sight to patients, while Makhlouf facilitated access to the bodies and took a substantial share of the profits. The patients believed that the tissue had been obtained legally. The families of the dead did not know that parts of their relatives’ bodies had been removed.
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