**Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025****A Time Book of the Year 2025**A portrait of the artist as a young woman in a Berlin that can’t escape its history: an electric debut novel about the daughter of Afghan refugees and her year of nightclubs, bad romance, and self-discovery‘Kaleidoscopic, full of style and soul’ Raven Leilani‘Nila shines in her wildness, in her yearning for beauty and freedom' Guardian‘A no-bullshit must-read debut’ Kaveh Akbar‘Delicious, propulsive reading’ VogueBorn in Germany to Afghan parents, Nila has spent her adolescence disappointing her family while searching for her voice. Now in Berlin’s techno-filled warehouses, their walls still scarred by the ravages of the last century, she has found her tribe.Then Nila meets American writer Marlowe. As she is sucked into his seductive but controlling orbit, and ugly racial tensions begin to roil through Germany, she is forced to ask herself the question she’s been running from: who does she want to be?‘A must-read ... breathtaking, profound, so fresh’ Guardian‘Vivid, shockingly moving ... unwinds complex histories and legacies - of people, places and politics alike - with a deft touch’ Financial Times‘With her novel, Aber has made the world more spacious: more people will find a place to fit’ New York Times‘Once in a blue moon a debut novel comes along, announcing a voice quite unlike any other’ Los Angeles Times