Hannah Lillith Assadi – författare

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026 ‘Miraculous’ OMAR EL AKKAD‘Stunning’ MAAZA MENGISTE ‘Suffused with tenderness’NEW YORK TIMES ‘Asks what it means to truly belong’ HARPER'S BAZAAR An extraordinary, sweeping novel following one man's itinerant search for home across the globe, after his childhood exile from Palestine. All his life, exile has been the shadow stitched to the sole of Sufien’s shoe. Born in Palestine on the precipice of 1948’s Nakba, Sufien is forced to leave the only home he’s ever known, the one on the hill with a beautiful blue door. In this moment time stops making sense.He spends the rest of his life propelled forward – although in search of what, he is never quite sure. In the dusty, oil-rich desert of Kuwait, he meets his first love and decides he must leave his family. In a small Italian university town, he spends his youth wrapped up in the forgetful assurance of wine. When life carries him to a gritty New York, he discovers his true vocation and falls in love with a Jewish woman born into a wholly different world. Until finally, he finds himself recalled to the wild, vast open skies of a desert much like his first home.Paradiso 17 is haunted with grief and yet it is also struck through with the dazzling light of a life truly lived and a love that connects us, no matter our distance.Like all of our dead, Sufien still speaks, the book begins. Listen, this is his story.‘An exquisite novel … unforgettable’ OMAR EL AKKAD, author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This‘A haunting, aching novel that deserves to find many readers’ JOANNA QUINN, author of The Whalebone Theatre‘I could not put this down … Compassionate, elegiac and suffuse with unflinching wit’ MAAZA MENGISTE, author of The Shadow King‘A gripping story of a soul in exile’ JUSTIN TORRES, author of Blackouts‘A miraculous novel’ KASIM ALI, author of Who Will Remain‘Remarkable … read it, read it, read it’ RABIH ALAMEDDINE, author of The True True Story of Raja the Gullible ‘Lyrical and gorgeously original … reads as poetry’ LITHUB

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026 ‘Miraculous’ OMAR EL AKKAD‘Stunning’ MAAZA MENGISTE ‘Suffused with tenderness’NEW YORK TIMES ‘Asks what it means to truly belong’ HARPER'S BAZAAR An extraordinary, sweeping novel following one man's itinerant search for home across the globe, after his childhood exile from Palestine. All his life, exile has been the shadow stitched to the sole of Sufien’s shoe. Born in Palestine on the precipice of 1948’s Nakba, Sufien is forced to leave the only home he’s ever known, the one on the hill with a beautiful blue door. In this moment time stops making sense.He spends the rest of his life propelled forward – although in search of what, he is never quite sure. In the dusty, oil-rich desert of Kuwait, he meets his first love and decides he must leave his family. In a small Italian university town, he spends his youth wrapped up in the forgetful assurance of wine. When life carries him to a gritty New York, he discovers his true vocation and falls in love with a Jewish woman born into a wholly different world. Until finally, he finds himself recalled to the wild, vast open skies of a desert much like his first home.Paradiso 17 is haunted with grief and yet it is also struck through with the dazzling light of a life truly lived and a love that connects us, no matter our distance.Like all of our dead, Sufien still speaks, the book begins. Listen, this is his story.‘An exquisite novel … unforgettable’ OMAR EL AKKAD, author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This‘I could not put this down … Compassionate, elegiac and suffuse with unflinching wit’ MAAZA MENGISTE, author of The Shadow King‘A gripping story of a soul in exile’ JUSTIN TORRES, author of Blackouts‘A miraculous novel’ KASIM ALI, author of Who Will Remain‘Remarkable … read it, read it, read it’ RABIH ALAMEDDINE, author of The True True Story of Raja the Gullible ‘Lyrical and gorgeously original … reads as poetry’ LITHUB

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026 ‘Miraculous’ OMAR EL AKKAD‘Stunning’ MAAZA MENGISTE ‘Suffused with tenderness’NEW YORK TIMES ‘Asks what it means to truly belong’ HARPER'S BAZAAR An extraordinary, sweeping novel following one man's itinerant search for home across the globe, after his childhood exile from Palestine. All his life, exile has been the shadow stitched to the sole of Sufien’s shoe. Born in Palestine on the precipice of 1948’s Nakba, Sufien is forced to leave the only home he’s ever known, the one on the hill with a beautiful blue door. In this moment time stops making sense.He spends the rest of his life propelled forward – although in search of what, he is never quite sure. In the dusty, oil-rich desert of Kuwait, he meets his first love and decides he must leave his family. In a small Italian university town, he spends his youth wrapped up in the forgetful assurance of wine. When life carries him to a gritty New York, he discovers his true vocation and falls in love with a Jewish woman born into a wholly different world. Until finally, he finds himself recalled to the wild, vast open skies of a desert much like his first home.Paradiso 17 is haunted with grief and yet it is also struck through with the dazzling light of a life truly lived and a love that connects us, no matter our distance.Like all of our dead, Sufien still speaks, the book begins. Listen, this is his story.‘An exquisite novel … unforgettable’ OMAR EL AKKAD, author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This‘I could not put this down … Compassionate, elegiac and suffuse with unflinching wit’ MAAZA MENGISTE, author of The Shadow King‘A gripping story of a soul in exile’ JUSTIN TORRES, author of Blackouts‘A miraculous novel’ KASIM ALI, author of Who Will Remain‘Remarkable … read it, read it, read it’ RABIH ALAMEDDINE, author of The True True Story of Raja the Gullible ‘Lyrical and gorgeously original … reads as poetry’ LITHUB

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026‘Miraculous’ OMAR EL AKKAD‘Stunning’ MAAZA MENGISTE‘Suffused with tenderness’NEW YORK TIMES‘Asks what it means to truly belong’ HARPER''S BAZAARAn extraordinary, sweeping novel following one man''s itinerant search for home across the globe, after his childhood exile from Palestine.All his life, exile has been the shadow stitched to the sole of Sufien’s shoe.Born in Palestine on the precipice of 1948’s Nakba, Sufien is forced to leave the only home he’s ever known, the one on the hill with a beautiful blue door. In this moment time stops making sense.He spends the rest of his life propelled forward – although in search of what, he is never quite sure. In the dusty, oil-rich desert of Kuwait, he meets his first love and decides he must leave his family. In a small Italian university town, he spends his youth wrapped up in the forgetful assurance of wine. When life carries him to a gritty New York, he discovers his true vocation and falls in love with a Jewish woman born into a wholly different world. Until finally, he finds himself recalled to the wild, vast open skies of a desert much like his first home.Paradiso 17 is haunted with grief and yet it is also struck through with the dazzling light of a life truly lived and a love that connects us, no matter our distance.Like all of our dead, Sufien still speaks, the book begins. Listen, this is his story.‘An exquisite novel … unforgettable’ OMAR EL AKKAD, author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This‘I could not put this down … Compassionate, elegiac and suffuse with unflinching wit’ MAAZA MENGISTE, author of The Shadow King‘A gripping story of a soul in exile’ JUSTIN TORRES, author of Blackouts‘A miraculous novel’ KASIM ALI, author of Who Will Remain‘Remarkable … read it, read it, read it’ RABIH ALAMEDDINE, author of The True True Story of Raja the Gullible‘Lyrical and gorgeously original … reads as poetry’ LITHUB

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026 ‘Miraculous’ OMAR EL AKKAD‘Stunning’ MAAZA MENGISTE ‘Suffused with tenderness’NEW YORK TIMES ‘Asks what it means to truly belong’ HARPER'S BAZAAR An extraordinary, sweeping novel following one man's itinerant search for home across the globe, after his childhood exile from Palestine. All his life, exile has been the shadow stitched to the sole of Sufien’s shoe. Born in Palestine on the precipice of 1948’s Nakba, Sufien is forced to leave the only home he’s ever known, the one on the hill with a beautiful blue door. In this moment time stops making sense.He spends the rest of his life propelled forward – although in search of what, he is never quite sure. In the dusty, oil-rich desert of Kuwait, he meets his first love and decides he must leave his family. In a small Italian university town, he spends his youth wrapped up in the forgetful assurance of wine. When life carries him to a gritty New York, he discovers his true vocation and falls in love with a Jewish woman born into a wholly different world. Until finally, he finds himself recalled to the wild, vast open skies of a desert much like his first home.Paradiso 17 is haunted with grief and yet it is also struck through with the dazzling light of a life truly lived and a love that connects us, no matter our distance.Like all of our dead, Sufien still speaks, the book begins. Listen, this is his story.‘An exquisite novel … unforgettable’ OMAR EL AKKAD, author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This‘I could not put this down … Compassionate, elegiac and suffuse with unflinching wit’ MAAZA MENGISTE, author of The Shadow King‘A gripping story of a soul in exile’ JUSTIN TORRES, author of Blackouts‘A miraculous novel’ KASIM ALI, author of Who Will Remain‘Remarkable … read it, read it, read it’ RABIH ALAMEDDINE, author of The True True Story of Raja the Gullible ‘Lyrical and gorgeously original … reads as poetry’ LITHUB

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER AND NPRThrough the scrim of fading memory, an elderly woman confronts a lifetime of secrets and betrayal, under the mysterious skies of her island home Off the coast of Georgia, near Savannah, generations have been tempted by strange blue lights in the sky near an island called Lyra. At the height of WWII, impressionable young Elle Ranier leaves New York City to forge a new life together on the island with her new husband, Simon. There they will live for decades, raising a family while waging a quixotic campaign to find the source of the mysterious blue offshore light—and the elusive minerals rumored to lurk beneath the surface. Fifty years later,  Elle looks back at her life on the mysterious island—and at a secret she herself has guarded for decades. As her memory recedes into the mists of Alzheimer’s disease, her life seems a tangle of questions: How did her husband’s business, now shuttered, survive so long without ever finding the legendary Lyra stones? How did her own life crumble under treatment for depression? And what became of Gabriel—the handsome, raffish other man who came to the island with them and risked everything to follow the lights? Darkly romantic and deeply haunting, The Stars Are Not Yet Bells pulls us into a story of the tantalizing, faithless relationship between ourselves and the lives and souls we leave behind.

'An unusual, intense, experimental novel' Daily MailIn the aftermath of the Great Depression, Elle Ranier marries Simon to escape a life of destitution. She leaves New York City for Lyra, a remote, wooded island off the south-eastern coast of America. There, amid rumours of strange jewels hidden beneath the water, Elle harbours a secret: her guest, Gabriel, is not a cousin but her lover.Their time together is brief, but throughout her long marriage to Simon, Elle never forgets Gabriel. Half a century later, as the mists of dementia creep in, she is still haunted by his fate. Poignant and poetic, The Stars Are Not Yet Bells is a mesmerising exploration of the limits of memory, and the people we can never forget. 'Poignant . . . a testament to love and loss' Washington Post

'A heartbreaking and profoundly visionary book.' Emily Fridlund, author of History of Wolves'The poetic beauty of the writing and a certain swirling Gothic passion and drama bowl the reader along... An unusual, intense, experimental novel' Daily MailIt is the end of the Great Depression and Elle Ranier believes that by marrying her wealthy husband Simon she is saving her life. Young and impressionable, she is unable to foresee the true cost of her decision. Instead, she leaves everything she has known in New York City to live in a vine-covered mansion on the tangled shores of Lyra, an island off America's southeastern coast. There, amid the wild horses, oak woods and rumours of jewels hidden beneath the water, Elle harbours a secret. Her so-called 'cousin' Gabriel, who comes to stay, is really a boyfriend from back home and the love of her life.In subsequent years, when Elle and Simon raise a family and face a less than idyllic relationship, Elle can never forget her brief dalliance with Gabriel. Even fifty years later, when her memory recedes into the mists of Alzheimer's disease, she is haunted by his fate. With her mind a maze of questions about long-buried stories, the bewitching island of Lyra might eventually bring answers to light.'A prophetic fever dream sprung from a singular imagination. Hannah Lillith Assadi is an incomparable stylist and a fearless storyteller. This novel is a lush, addicting, daring wonder' Claire Vaye Watkins, author of I Love You But I've Chosen DarknessDarkly romantic and beautifully immersive, The Stars Are Not Yet Bells pulls us into a story about the limits of memory and people we can never forget.

'A heartbreaking and profoundly visionary book.' Emily Fridlund, author of History of Wolves'The poetic beauty of the writing and a certain swirling Gothic passion and drama bowl the reader along... An unusual, intense, experimental novel' Daily MailIt is the end of the Great Depression and Elle Ranier believes that by marrying her wealthy husband Simon she is saving her life. Young and impressionable, she is unable to foresee the true cost of her decision. Instead, she leaves everything she has known in New York City to live in a vine-covered mansion on the tangled shores of Lyra, an island off America's southeastern coast. There, amid the wild horses, oak woods and rumours of jewels hidden beneath the water, Elle harbours a secret. Her so-called 'cousin' Gabriel, who comes to stay, is really a boyfriend from back home and the love of her life.In subsequent years, when Elle and Simon raise a family and face a less than idyllic relationship, Elle can never forget her brief dalliance with Gabriel. Even fifty years later, when her memory recedes into the mists of Alzheimer's disease, she is haunted by his fate. With her mind a maze of questions about long-buried stories, the bewitching island of Lyra might eventually bring answers to light.'A prophetic fever dream sprung from a singular imagination. Hannah Lillith Assadi is an incomparable stylist and a fearless storyteller. This novel is a lush, addicting, daring wonder' Claire Vaye Watkins, author of I Love You But I've Chosen DarknessDarkly romantic and beautifully immersive, The Stars Are Not Yet Bells pulls us into a story about the limits of memory and people we can never forget.

Composed in the twelfth century in northeastern Iran, The Conference of the Birds is a marvellous, allegorical rendering of the Islamic philosophical tradition of Sufism, whose followers seek a spiritual path to mystical union with the divine.The epic poem describes a gathering of the birds of the world who meet to begin the search for their ideal king, the Simorgh bird. On hearing that they must undertake an arduous journey to the summit of Mount Qaf, the birds express reservations to their leader, the hoopoe.With eloquence and insight, the hoopoe calms their fears, using a series of riddling parables to provide guidance in the search for spiritual truth.By turns witty and profound, The Conference of the Birds transforms profound belief into magnificent poetry.