Author Ryad Assani-Razaki

The latest novel by Beninese-Canadian author Ryad Assani-Razaki, The Hand of Iman , is a work as layered as it is urgent. Structured around elemental tenets of faith and centred on a cast of interwoven voices, the novel unfolds in an unnamed but unmistakably African setting, where the promise of Western wealth and safety feels distant, even illusory.

In a brutally unequal society scarred by child slavery and false promises of Western salvation, two boys – Toumani, a survivor hardened by suffering, and Iman, a dreamer desperate to escape – forge a fragile friendship shaped by trauma, longing and a shared love that exposes the futility of hope in a world where survival offers no guarantee of freedom.

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