Shortlisted for the Amazon Rising Star Award Longlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize 2016 'Clar provides access to the beating hearts on all sides of terror that even our best journalists can't reach…' -- Christopher Bollen, author 'Compelling and relentless…page-turner of a novel' -- Damien Lewis 'A turbulent journey to the world's most forgotten corners' -- Celeste Hicks, author and former BBC journalist 'A stunning debut' -- Nick Brownlee, author and journalist 'This is a layered, textured, wholehearted novel that will stay with me for a long time' -- Lean Cullinan, author Journalist Peter Maguire has been kidnapped in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. He does not know where he is or what is going to happen to him. The journalist is filled with fear and, as the days go by, this dread of the unknown is shot through with remorse for the mistakes of his past. Peter's mother Nina comes to Somalia to wait for her son's release. His plight forces her to relive another trauma the fatal shooting in Liberia of Shaun Ridge, a young photographer she once loved, and Peter's real father. Abdi, a Somali teenager working with Peter's captors strikes a tenuous friendship with the prisoner based on a shared feeling of captivity. He decides to help Peter escape. Together and they set off into the barren vastness of a land filled with danger. These three people must journey into one of the world's most dangerous places, the human mind, to answer the question: are we ever truly free? Perfect for fans of Homeland , Wilbur Smith and Lee Child