This is one of those novels that thoroughly delights me purely based on it covering such taboo topics and it seems to include as many as possible. There’s also some really lovely descriptions.

The story focuses on a dead prostitute (Laila) in Instanbul but it’s about who she is as a human, what her life was like, and what happened before, during and after death. It opens at the point of death and we learn what she thinks, as she remembers her life.

In the beginning, it seems that the novel will follow Laila for the 10 minutes her brain is still alive (in third person). What doesn’t work as well for me is that, rather than exploring just her memories, it sometimes tells the story around those memories, from POV/events that she would not have known or been able to remember.

It then splits into a part 2, which then follows “the body” and her friends’ POVs. Her friends being an unusual assortment of characters where we seem to tell them apart only because they’re physically different or fit stereotypes (cowardly man, trans woman, little person etc).

Overall though, I really enjoyed it.

Cw: child abuse, violence, murder.