A haunting beautiful story of Haoua, a young girl growing up in a remote village in the Republic of NigerHarmattan. A dry, dusty wind that blows from the Sahara across West Africa. [Probably from Arabic haram, a forbidden or accursed thing.]Spirited, independent, and intelligent, Haoua has benefited from a stable home life and a loving and attentive mother. She enjoys working and playing with her siblings and friends, and she worships her elder brother, Abdelkrim, a serving soldier who sends money home to support the family. But, on his last home visit, Abdelkrim quarrels with their father, accusing him of gambling away the money he sends and of being the cause of their mother's worsening health. It also emerges that their father plans to take a second wife.
