Belladonna

Praise

“Salam writes beautifully about the beguiling nature of desire, and what we’re willing to throw into its fire in order to get what it is we believe we want. … I was utterly captivated, from first page to last.”—Anton DiSclafani, New York Times bestselling author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls and The After Party

“A moving tale about identity, love, and loss. Anbara Salam unspools a compelling narrative about a young woman struggling to find herself amid family secrets and her own hidden truths. It’s the kind of emotionally rich story that stays with you.” —Anissa Gray, author of The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls
 
“Recalling Eleanor Catton’s The Rehearsal meets Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides meets Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr Ripley, this unputdownable and lush novel had me entranced and totally absorbed in the woozy, covertly sensual world of a 1950s Italian convent. Anbara Salam has a gimlet-eyed, ferocious talent for capturing the obsessive urgency and convolutions of power and desire in adolescent experience.”—Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti

“The tender, exquisite prose brilliantly captures the feelings and fault lines in the girls’ friendship. This is a discerning look at secret infatuation and racial prejudice.”—Publishers Weekly