Swimming for his life towards traffickers on the Italian shore, Selim enters a world where Kurdish refugees disguise themselves as tomatoes, dates of birth are a matter of opinion, and a residency permit is a ticket to paradise. When he ends up in a small town in Germany, Selim believes he is finally safe, until the law catches up with him and the clock starts ticking. Selim realises there is only one way to avoid deportation, if he dare try …
Fifteen years later, in a town hall in Paris, a Registrar receives an unsettling book in the post. The Registrar's Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages only fuels her suspicions surrounding an impending Kurdish wedding. Unsure how to intervene, she embarks on an investigation that brings her uncomfortably close to an old acquaintance: Selim.
This exciting literary debut from a prodigious young talent introduces an unlikely hero who'll prove impossible to forget... Selim's first view of Europe is a vast, thick carpet of digested pasta. Swimming through sewage towards traffickers on the Italian shore, he parts Europe's defences with his bony chest before collapsing on the sand. Waiting for him is a truck, officially loaded with crates of tomatoes: the sunny taste of Italy. Unofficially, the truck is loaded with Selim and his fellow refugees: the sunny taste of Kurdistan.
