Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Longlist, Canada Reads 2026
A CBC Best Book of 2025
A beguiling coming of age novel set in Uganda in which a young woman grapples with the truth about her sister in a country that punishes gay people.
Eighteen-year-old Aine Kamara has been anticipating a reunion with her older sister, Mbabazi, for months. But when Mbabazi shows up with an unexpected guest, Aine must confront an old fear: her beloved sister is gay in a country with tight anti-homosexuality laws.
Over a weekend at Aine’s all girls’ boarding school, sisterly bonds strengthen, and a new friendship emerges between Aine and her sister’s partner, Achen. Later, a sudden death in the family brings Achen to Mbabazi’s and Aine’s village, resulting in tensions that put Mrs. Kamara’s Christian beliefs to the test. Aine runs away to Mbabazi’s and Achen’s home in Kampala, where she reconnects with her crush, Elia, a sophomore at Makerere University.
In acclaimed writer Iryn Tushabe’s dazzling debut novel, Aine must make hard choices, with inevitable and harrowing results.
“Peeled back, there is a central kernel of intimacy in Tushabe’s novel: the insistent, surprising ways characters connect even amidst the pressurization of Uganda’s rigid anti-homosexuality laws.” — The Walrus