The novel follows the life of Umm Yusuf, a lonely widow in the city of Zarqa, north of the Jordanian capital. She came from Palestine as a child with her family, fleeing the Israeli occupation, until she married and built a family of her own before her husband passed away and her children each left for their own lives. Umm Yusuf finds a small tortoise on the road and decides to bring it home to keep her company. It is as if this small animal becomes an equivalent for the lonely woman who does not speak much, burdened by a family that ended up fragmented by life's circumstances and diaspora. The other woman, her Christian neighbor Umm Awni, supports her, sympathizes with her, and recounts some of the neighbor's life. But in her own home, being a native of the area, details bustling with life and joy unfold, from buying and selling homes to the marriage of her children. This situation reveals, by comparison, that the lonely neighbor's house is devoid of the noise of life, resembling the silent, dark shell of the tortoise.

• Category: Stories/Novels
• Author: Mahmoud Al-Rimawi
• Publisher: Fadaat for Publishing & Distribution
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Number of Pages: 178