Fragrance of Forgiveness, by Raashida Khan

 Barely surviving the death of her daughter to a harrowing disease and the acrimonious divorce from her husband of nineteen years, Azraa Hassim has become a bitter woman, numbed by her own rage and anger. Fragrance of Forgiveness, the sequel to the award-winning debut novel Mirror Cracked, picks up two years later. Azraa exists without engaging with anyone unless necessary, especially her family. But life forces her to question yet again all that she had taken for granted and all that she had thought was true in her life. Azraa’s journey leads her down a path towards the realisation that she has to learn to forgive herself so that she can forgive others. Only then will she be free to accept and trust in Allah’s will and plan.

A truly gripping and thought-provoking story about the crushing devastation of betrayal and its disastrous consequences, Raashida Khan’s genius in Fragrance of Forgiveness is in the interwoven messages on leading a fulfilled and accepting life. This tough but touching very human story has the capacity to change lives and shows how we are all similar in our struggles, while revealing insights into contemporary Muslim society.