A Mouth Full of Salt

Winner of the 2023 Island Prize

The Nile brought them life, but the Nile was not their friend.

When a little boy drowns in the treacherous currents of the Nile, the search for his body unearths further disaster for his northern Sudanese village, exposing secrets that had been buried for generations.

Three women try to make their way through a world that wants to keep them back, separated from each other by time but bound together by the same river that weaves its way through their lives, giving little and taking much more.

A Mouth Full of Salt uncovers a country on the brink of seismic change as its women decide for themselves which traditions are fit for purpose—and which prophecies it’s time to rewrite.