Leïla Slimani: I'll Take the Fire

Q: If your house was burning down, what would you take with you?
A: I’d take the fire.

I’ll Take the Fire is a haunting story of self-discovery, truth and power, sex and lies. It follows two sisters, Mia and Inés. Two girls enveloped in love, trapped by social conventions of Casablanca at the dawn of the 21st century and silenced by the political ‘truths’ that encompass their lives.

Mia – the older sister, a warrior and a pariah, her sexuality a matter of scorn, a truth to be erased. Inés – the little sister, a woman trying to carve out an identity in a Paris that derides and erases her, with no way back to Morocco, a homeland her father has warned her never to return for her own sake.

As these sisters struggle to find a home, a place of safety and love that holds rather than binds this story, their lives as framed by their mothers and grandmothers before them will be a battle for their hearts and souls, and one they take on with every sinew of their being.

Leïla Slimani is the author of The Country of Others, Watch Us Dance, Adèle, Sex and Lies and Lullaby, which made Slimani the first Moroccan woman to win France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt.

A journalist and frequent commentator on women’s and human rights, she is French president Emmanuel Macron’s personal representative for the promotion of the French language and culture. Born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1981 and a citizen of France, she divides her time between Paris, Portugal and international commitments that take her around the world.

Sana Goyal is the Editor and Publishing Director of Wasafiri magazine. She has an MA in Postcolonial Studies and a PhD in literary prizes from SOAS, University of London. Her reviews have appeared in The Guardian, Financial Times, Times Literary Supplement and elsewhere. She was a judge for the 2025 International Booker Prize.