Listen and read

Step into an infinite world of stories

  • Listen and read as much as you want
  • Over 400 000+ titles
  • Bestsellers in 10+ Indian languages
  • Exclusive titles + Storytel Originals
  • Easy to cancel anytime
Subscribe now
Details page - Device banner - 894x1036

The Pact We Made

17 Ratings

3.6

Duration
7H 39min
Language
English
Format
Category

Fiction

Featured on BBC Radio 4’s Open Book • Featured on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking • An ELLE Magazine cultural pick • Reviewed in the Observer

‘Beautifully written’ Joanna Cannon ‘Fascinating … full of personality’ Guardian ‘Brilliant … What a debut’ Pandora Sykes

‘How could I explain to her that nothing in my life felt real? That in a country like Kuwait, where everyone knew everything about each other, the most monumental thing to ever happen to me was buried and covered over? For the sake of my reputation, my future, my sister’s and cousins; the family honor sat on my little shoulders, so no-one could ever know.’

Dahlia has two lives. In one, she is a young woman with a good job, great friends and a busy social life. In the other, she is an unmarried daughter living at home, struggling with a burgeoning anxiety disorder and a deeply buried secret: a violent betrayal too shameful to speak of.

With her thirtieth birthday fast-approaching, pressure from her mother to accept a marriage proposal begins to strain the family. As her two lives start to collide and fracture, all Dahlia can think of is escape: something that seems impossible when she can’t even leave the country without her father’s consent.

But what if Dahlia does have a choice? What if all she needs is the courage to make it?

Set in contemporary Kuwait, The Pact We Made is a deeply affecting and timely debut about family, secrets and one woman’s search for a different life.

© 2019 HarperCollins (Audiobook): 9780008284473

Release date

Audiobook: 7 March 2019

Others also enjoyed ...

  1. Conjure Women Afia Atakora
  2. We, The Survivors Tash Aw
  3. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine Gail Honeyman
  4. A Woman is No Man Etaf Rum
  5. The Family Tree Sairish Hussain
  6. Silence is a Sense Layla AlAmmar
  7. Pachinko Min Jin Lee
  8. Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  9. Behold the Dreamers: An Oprah’s Book Club pick Imbolo Mbue
  10. The Far Field: A Novel Madhuri Vijay
  11. The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky
  12. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982: The international bestseller Cho Nam-Joo
  13. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
  14. Red Clocks Leni Zumas
  15. Of Women and Salt Gabriela Garcia
  16. How to Kill Your Family Bella Mackie
  17. Our Wives Under The Sea: Winner of the Polari Prize Julia Armfield
  18. Ponti Sharlene Teo
  19. Sorrow and Bliss: A Novel Meg Mason
  20. The Underground Railroad: LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017 Colson Whitehead
  21. The Minorities Suffian Hakim
  22. Inheritance Balli Kaur Jaswal
  23. The Book of Goose Yiyun Li
  24. Nimita's Place Akshita Nanda
  25. The Maid Nita Prose
  26. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Angela Y. Davis
  27. Remarkably Bright Creatures Shelby Van Pelt
  28. Mr Nobody Catherine Steadman
  29. The Cat Who Saved Books: The heartwarming first title in the bestselling Japanese series – a must for book lovers everywhere Sosuke Natsukawa
  30. Crudo Olivia Laing
  31. A Woman Is No Man: A Novel Etaf Rum
  32. Ask Again, Yes: A Novel Mary Beth Keane
  33. My Dark Vanessa: A Novel Kate Elizabeth Russell
  34. Nothing to See Here Kevin Wilson
  35. An American Marriage: A Novel Tayari Jones
  36. Black Sun Rebecca Roanhorse
  37. The Keeper of Lost Things: A Novel Ruth Hogan
  38. The Unhoneymooners Christina Lauren