Hannah Marie Williams

Behind the Palm Trees

Mehdi leads an exemplary life with his family and Selma, his new girlfriend in Marrakech. For the young couple, things are going smoothly until Mehdi meets Marie, a young French woman caught up in the social life of the expatriate community.

Translations

It's been years since Stef last left her house. The loss of her brother combined with the quiet dread of the unknown conspiring to keep her inside. When her brother Liam's best friend, Evan, arrives to give Liam's journal to Stef, they begin a relationship. However, when Stef and Evan start to unpack their shared trauma, they question if their relationship can ever break free from its confines? Caught between Evan's images of a world outside that they could inhabit, and a story of lost love that Stef is translating from a previous generation, Stef must choose the kind of future she wants, and whether Evan will be a part of it.