When I’m not travel writing, I’m hard at work on my fourth fantasy novel, which is as of yet unnamed:

Naila Kindiri believes that family should come first, but she seems to be the only one to think so. Her sister, Simae, has been estranged for nearly a decade, her brother recently disappeared on a mysterious journey, and her homesick foreign mother packed her bags the day after Naila’s father’s funeral.

When she learns that her father’s will still inexplicably names her sister as heir, Naila sets off on the eve of society-shattering political protests to find her. She discovers the normally vivacious Simae in the grasp of opiates, and pregnant.

Naila is not the only person hunting Simae. The military has gotten wind of Simae’s past University research, which could lead to an invaluable weapon they hope to use to secure their own power in the event of a coup, and they’ll stop at nothing to get her.

Naila doesn’t care about politics, but she does care about keeping her family together. As the city dissolves into a violent cycle of protest, oppression and massacres, Naila must choose sides in order to save a family who doesn’t seem to want to be saved. And reuniting with her sister and brother means learning dark family secrets that might just shatter her belief in what it means to be a family at all.