When Pratap leaves the stability of family life in Toronto for the unknown of a middle Eastern city, his official purpose is a research project. His true motive is to find Jasmine, the lost love of his youth. In the city, he discovers the manuscript of a secret novel called a Spring without fragrance that tells the story of the Arab Spring and its failure. But the book is a dangerous one, and anyone who reads it disappears. A literary thriller, a tribute to the power of books in the face of state repression, and a story of indelible love – This follow up to benyamin’s award-winning Jasmine days is a moving and urgent novel of our times.

Benyamin has lived in Bahrain since 1992. His short story collection Euthanasia won the first award of the Abu Dhabi Malayalam Samajam and in 2009 his novel Aadu Jeevitham (Goat Days) won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award.