A Mouth Full of Salt is the debut novel by Sudanese public health physician and writer Reem Gaafar. It won the 2023 Island Prize, marking the first time a Sudanese author has received this prize. In their press release, the prize judges praised the novel for being “stylistically simple, insightful, and elegant, sharing truths like all the best fiction.” Indeed, Gaafar reveals many truths in her debut. The novel opens in 1989 with the news of a missing — and presumably drowned — young boy, Mohamed Hamid Kheir Alseed, which throws the residents of an unnamed village near the Sudanese city of Kar…