About The Years of Silence:
Marwa Ayad's debut, national-bestselling English-language novel, The Years of Silence, is NOW available at these bookstores in Cairo:
Diwan, El-Shorouk, Omar bookstore, Sindbad, El-Balad, Afaaq, Madbouly, Madbouly Al-Sagheir, Rose Al-Yousef, Al-Arabi, Kotob Khan, Sanabel, BookSpot, and Master's bookshop (soon at AUC Bookstore and Virgin Megastore).
In Alexandria, you can find my novel at: Maarouf bookstore (San Stefano Mall), Clay Cafe, and Diwan (Carrefoure - Alexandria City Centre).
If you happen to be outside Egypt, the novel isn't available yet on Amazon. You can order your copy NOW from BookSpotOnline using this link: http://bookspotonline.com/middle.php?file=bookdetails&bookid=43933
Check out my press release.
Blurb:
After a tragic incident, divorced and heartbroken, Egyptian 27-year-old Maya Seif is determined to move on, and find a new career in publishing. When she realizes she can't get Yusuf, her first love, out of her mind, she decides to email him.
Yusuf Omar, an ambitious American-born, Egyptian-raised man is a thousand miles away from Egypt, and going through difficult times himself. The last thing he expects is an email, after all these years of silence, from the young woman he was in love with seven years ago.
Between Egypt and New York, little do they know how their lives are about to change forever, but not until they overcome the most difficult challenge.
Narrated by Maya, this is a story of great love lost and found, and the risks two people in love are willing to take to be together when their love is the greatest risk of all.
~~~
The Years of Silence: A Novel by Marwa Ayad
Prologue
In a far corner of my mind, the words echoed more clearly this time.
She’s already lost it!
There's no way this poor fetus would have survived.
Have you seen the husband?
Almost done, Doctor.
Poor thing.
And I thought my husband was bad.
When I opened my eyes, the pain was excruciating, invading every cell of my body. I was numb, unable to move. I heard murmurs, whispers and unfamiliar voices inside my head. I was half-conscious in a strange room that smelled of antiseptic and medicine.
Then I remembered...
Dinner at my grandparents’, the humiliation, the stabbing pain... Darkness had turned to silence, the unmistakable cruelty that would never change.
"We couldn't save it. I'm sorry," I heard someone whisper in my ear.
“What happened?” I asked, a thousand questions racing through my head.
A doctor in a white overall approached and smiled at me. “You’ll feel better soon, Mrs. Maya.”
I heard someone break into tears. It sounded like my mother.
“I’m afraid you’ve had an unfortunate miscarriage, but you’ll be alright.” The doctor’s voice was kind.
For seconds, I lay still, unable to breathe.
I looked at the young doctor’s face, unable to focus. “What baby?”
“You were pregnant, Mrs. Maya. I’m very sorry for your loss,” he said.
Would anyone be sorrier than me?
Oh, you very piece of my heart and mind, that your father could have been that cruel to you. What should I finally say to you when we meet in the next life?
My dearest, I'll never let you go. Will you forgive your own mother who would have rather lost her life, her very soul, but never you?
Or is it my fault that I didn't choose the right father for you? Why, for God’s sake, didn't I marry Yusuf?
He would have made a better husband and father, I heard myself say, agonizing thoughts piercing my consciousness.
Why did I remember Yusuf now? Of all the times I thought of him, why now?
“The worst is over,” the doctor said again.
Oh, was it? It was far from over. Not anywhere near it.
~~~
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