Far Cry From The Turquoise Room

Leila is the eight-year-old daughter of Hassan Nassiri, a wealthy Iranian property owner, and younger sister to the adored Fayruz, her father's favourite daughter.

The death of Fayruz in a holiday narrowboat accident has far-reaching consequences for the surviving family. Hassan withdraws into reclusive grief, when he’s not escaping into work, or high jinks with his men friends at his second home in Hampstead.

Meanwhile, Samira, his therapist wife, suffers a breakdown, leaving Leila to fend for herself in a lonely world of nannies, chess and star-gazing, where it becomes more and more apparent that she will never now be her father's favourite.
Two years after her sister's death, and at a time when her parents are expecting another child, Leila runs away from home and joins a family of travellers in Sussex, and so follows a tale of adventure, danger and romance – and further anguish for her parents.