A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

The feds have captured her father; her house is going up in flames. Within hours, eight-year-old Havaa will be rescued by her neighbour, Akhmed, and sheltered by Sonja, a doctor in a nearby hospital. Over the next five days, the lives of these three strangers will be forever transformed. With war-torn Chechnya as his backdrop, Anthony Marra deftly criss-crosses the turbulent years between 1994 and 2004 to reveal the ties that can bind even the most troubled souls in a country ravaged by conflict.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, Anthony Marra, $25. Available at Indigo.ca andAmazon.ca.