Supplication

‘There, within the suddenness of the unending present, I was born.’ An unnamed narrator comes to in a basement, tied to a chair, a man looming over her. Someone has a knife. She emerges from her captivity into a mysterious and nightmarish city, searching for meaning in her new reality. As figures emerge from the night, some offering sanctuary, and others judgement, she moves through a fever-dream narrative of alienation, fear, and the quest for respite. Nour Abi-Nakhoul’s powerful debut novel, Supplication, is a hallucinatory literary horror set deep in the consciousness of a woman exploring a changed and frightening world.