The village is in northern Syria, near the border to Turkey. Leyla spends every summer there. She knows its smells and tastes. She knows its stories. She knows where the villagers’ suitcases are hidden in case they have to escape again. Urgently and poignantly, as if her eyes were wide open, Ronya Othmann’s debut novel tells the story of living in the face of annihilation. Only to defy it. Leyla’s parents are German and Yazidi. She spends lesson time sitting in her secondary school in Munich, and the summer holidays sitting on the earthy floor of her grandparents’ house in a Yazidi village. Leyla is familiar with the outline of Kurdistan, and the shape of the female student she loves. She clicks through pictures of war-torn Aleppo the assassination of the Yazidi by ISIS, and alongside these, carefree photos of her German friends’ everyday lives. Leyla will soon haveto make a decision.