Behind the Sun

From the author of What Have You Left Behind? comes a novel about forced disappearances in Yemen.

An experimental work of historical fiction told in polyphonic monologues, Behind the Sun is set around 2010, with flashbacks to 1994, taking in the transition from an Imam-led government to socialism prevailing in the south, and then the civil war, with a particular focus on unexplained disappearances of those who opposed the majoritarian political power at any time.

The story is told from the perspectives of three characters: Yousef, a political prisoner whose present-day mental instability is the result of torture; Yahya, an army officer who guards Yousef in prison; and Yahya's unnamed wife, a teacher and aspiring writer, who was forced to marry Yahya after her father was abducted. Her attempts to escape her lonely situation by having a child is thwarted by ovarian cancer, and she finally decides to seek refuge in Egypt.

Through flashbacks and present-day monologues of each character, the tumultuous history of Yemen is pieced together, almost reflecting the attempted piecing together of each character's broken self.