Reem Gaafar on 'A Mouth Full of Salt'

The Nile brought them life, but the Nile was not their friend.

When a little boy drowns in the treacherous currents of the Nile, the search for his body unearths calamity and disaster, and exposes forgotten secrets buried for generations in a small northern Sudanese village.

Three women try to make their way through a world that wants to keep them back, separated from each other by time but bound together by the same river that weaves its way through their lives, giving little but taking much more.

In this episode of Booksmart, Soaliha Iqbal sits down with leading Sudanese writer, physician, and activist Reem Gaafar to discuss her formidable debut novel, A Mouth Full of Salt.

It's no surprise that this book has hit the bestselling charts. The novel weaves a powerful narrative of grief, migration, memory, and womanhood, exploring the psychological toll of political violence, as well as the unique complexities of returning home.

Reem discusses Sudan’s 2019 revolution, the challenge of translating collective trauma into fiction, and why platforming women’s stories, especially in moments of rupture, is a political act. This intimate conversation moves between literature and lived experience, touching on motherhood, exile, and the radical power of bearing witness - and it couldn't be more timely. 

If you’re drawn to literature that sits at the intersection of resistance and remembrance, this one’s for you.