In an unnamed coastal city, the mother of a displaced family calls out her daughter's name as she wanders the cliffside road where the child once worked. The mother searches in vain. Bearing witness is another grieving woman, there on a business trip. The second woman also suffered terrible losses—of a language, a country, an identity—when her family fled a distant war.

Balsam Karam changes the way we see the world. In this moving novel, she offers a fresh approach to language and narrative as she questions our assumptions and perspectives through her gripping story. The Singularity, her English-language debut, was shortlisted for the prestigious August Prize and the European Union Prize for Literature.