How quickly can a garden of beauty be consumed by the fires of extremism?

Flowers in Flames is a harrowing novel by Amir Tag Elsir that exposes the brutality of religious fanaticism. Khamila, a wealthy young woman of Italian-Sudanese heritage, returns to her hometown of Al-Sur after studying aesthetics in Egypt, embodying the city’s vibrant diversity.

But beauty becomes a crime when the radical group "The Memory and History" seizes control, declaring war on "infidels" in the name of a twisted law. The city is plunged into darkness, and women are enslaved as spoils of war. Khamila is stripped of her identity, renamed "Na'na'a," and forced into captivity. Nominated for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, this is a powerful lament for a homeland devoured by ideology, where women are the colorful flowers thrown into the fire.