“It’s a book to break free, a literary quest where one liberates oneself by using the oppressor’s weapons.” — Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, winner of the Prix Goncourt 2021

An coming-of-age novel nourished by spirituality where the marvellous conjures up violence. — L’Humanité

It is like being mesmerized by Touhfat Mouhtare’s sensual prose and extraordinary imagination.  — Libération

The young Comorian novelist nonchalantly and boldly says out loud what she thinks thanks to mythology and the mastery of fire, wind, earth and water. — Le Figaro

The Comorian author Touhfat Mouhtare uses her pen to sing the songs of oppressed women, thirsting for love and freedom. … We can feel a feminist spirit in [her] song-like writing. She depicts the ordinary people in the same way as Djaïli Amadou Amal or Arundhati Roy. — Kerenn Elkaïm, Livres Hebdo

A true ode to language, freedom and love. — PAGE des Librairies

Her delightfully iconoclastic writing gives The Fire Within a remarkable magnitude. The kind of novel that instantly reminds you why literature exists. — Le Monde

I was overwhelmed by the joyful richness this novel offers on so many different levels, from everyday life in Comoros to the exuberant fantasy that draws on diverse traditions, such as the djinn of cosmological Indian legend, Soufi mysticism and African animalism. It’s a book that bears witness to a meeting between Chinua Achebe, Salman Rushdie, Emmanuel Dongala and Elif Shafak. — Marie Desmeures, editor Le Bruit du monde

The Comoros Islands: a place of history and fable, and a world of spirituality to discover. The Fire Within is a singular novel of initiation, which tilts into Arabian Nights-like wonder.

When the servant-girl Gaillard encounters Halima, daughter of one of the masters of the village of Itsandra while out collecting wood, little can she imagine the consequences their meeting will bring.

Halima has run away from home, trying to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her, and, though Gaillard is unable to help her, the connection they develop is powerful. Before returning to carry out her father’s wishes, Halima gives Gaillard a magical object to hold onto.

Ten years later, Halima returns. In the meantime, Gaillard has grown. She has been taught how to read and interpret the Koran by her master, and has been introduced to the legends of her African ancestors thanks to her adoptive mother.

As the women’s paths cross once again, the object Halima left to her begins to reveal its secrets, taking Gaillard on a journey beyond time, self and memory to a place of spiritual enlightenment and a greater understanding of her place in the world.

Set on the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean, The Fire Within is a novel of self-discovery, spiritual yearning and how the bonds we form with those we love transcend time and space.

Written in lucid, delicate and poetic prose, Gaillard’s story blends a precise and sensitive understanding of the specific culture in which she lives, with a dreamlike magic of fable and fantasy, recalling tales such as those of A Thousand and One Nights.