The House of Barbary : The fierce, feminist retelling of Bluebeard

**Longlisted for the Bread & Roses Award 2025**‘Brave, powerful, and deeply necessary ... A vital contribution to the Black British literary canon’ Afua Hirsch‘Fresh and important’ Guardian‘An exceptional book’ Sally Hayden‘Wonderful’ Financial Times‘An extraordinary story’ Nish KumarWhen Aamna Mohdin travelled to Calais to report on the refugee crisis, she was confronted by a reality she had been outrunning for two decades: that she had been a child refugee herself. Determined to piece her scattered family history together, Mohdin set off on a mission. Her journey would see her cross the world: from the rooftops of Mogadishu to a reunion with a long-lost friend in Amsterdam to Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. Scattered is a powerful investigation into the aftershocks of displacement, written by a young woman uniquely placed to explore the refugee experience. But it is also a story of homecoming in many forms – and a defiant celebration of family and love. ‘In a moment where refugees are rarely heard from, her voice breaks through’ Gary Younge‘Mohdin explores her Somali family’s refugee experience across continents in her wonderful book’ Financial Times