The Road to the Salt Sea: A Novel

WINNER OF THE 2025 WHITING AWARD FOR FICTION

PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD FINALIST • ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE LONGLIST

As wrenching and luminous as Omar El Akkad’s What Strange Paradise and Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, a searing exploration of the global migration crisis that moves from Nigeria to Libya to Italy, from an exciting new literary voice.

Able God works for low pay at a four-star hotel where he must flash his “toothpaste-white smile” for wealthy guests. When not tending to the hotel’s overpri...