Touba and the Meaning of Night

After her father's death, fourteen-year-old Touba takes her family's financial security into her own hands by proposing to a fifty-two-year-old relative. But, intimidated by her outspoken nature, Touba's husband soon divorces her. When she marries again, it is to a prince with whom she experiences tenderness and physical passion and bears four children--but their relationship sours when he proves unfaithful. Touba is granted a divorce, and as her unconventional life continues, she becomes the matriarch of an ever-changing household of family members and refugees . . .