“He’s…honest. With everything. His thoughts, his expressions. He’s kind. It’s a rare kindness, Layla. I’m sure he still dreams. Maybe he’s the only one who still dreams. Maybe he’s the only one in the
whole city who still dreams at night. And when he looks at me, I feel…I feel like I’m being seen, and there is…there is a tiny bit of hope.”

Salama Kassab was recently a pharmacy student, until the civil war in Syria escalated and she now finds herself doing the work of a surgeon at a hospital in Homs. Both of Salama’s parents have
recently been killed and her brother Hamza is in prison. Before the war, Salama was scheduled for a date with a local young man, set up through their mothers. That date was cancelled, but the two run
into each other and a romance blooms during the destruction of the war.

A beautifully written novel about love, family and hope during a war that seems hopeless.