A “fierce literary thriller” about an exiled woman confronting her past as a prisoner of a repressive theocracy (Kirkus Reviews).

She was known as “Bait 455,” the most famous prisoner in a ruthless theological republic. He was one of the colonels closest to the supreme commander. When they meet, years later, far from their country of birth, a strange, equivocal relationship develops between them. Both their shared past of suffering and old romantic passions come rushing back—accompanied by recollections of the perverse logic of violence that dominated the dictatorship under which they lived.

French Iranian author Fariba Hachtroudi’s prize-winning, “tightly plotted” novel “packs complex emotions in a small space, tackling difficult and essential questions about power and our responsibilities to one another” (Kirkus Reviews).

“The story leaves us chilled by the tyrannical culture that created this macabre bond. But at the end, it’s just as much a tale of the capacity of love.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“Timeless in its meditations on totalitarianism and the toll it takes on even those who physically escape its clutches.” —Shelf Awareness (starred review)