I Hide Passion

Set in Tunis in 2014-15, I Hide Passion depicts the polarisation of political parties and wide-ranging social consequences following the revolution. The main character, the retired General Al-Shadhli al-Sherif, has lived through all the regimes since independence, and faces both ostracism within his family and unresolved business from the past. The destinies of the novel’s characters intersect, and their conflicting interests spark a violent clash in a working-class neighbourhood where the bright hopes of the revolution are beginning to evaporate. Terrorist attacks spread, and fundamentalism tightens its grip, aided by a crisis in education.