These Letters End in Tears by Musih Tedji Xaviere

Publishes 26 February 2026
 
Shortlisted for the 2025 British Book Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year
 
If by some chance you happen on these letters, know that I waited for you. And if you don't find me, it is not because I stopped waiting...

A chance encounter on a football pitch in Cameroon sees Fatima cross paths with Bessem, opening up the page for an all-consuming, law and logic defying romance.

Even knowing that same-sex relationships are criminalised, Fatima and Bessem decide to live out their love. All seems to be going well, until one day tragedy strikes, and Fatima disappears...

Thirteen years have passed, and Bessem is now a university professor, keeping her sexuality secret, but the memory of Fatima never leaves her. When one coincidence becomes several, Bessem takes the signs as a cosmic command: to go and find her old lover again.

Told mostly through unsent letters, These Letters End in Tears, powerfully charts all the different ways that love, despite all odds, comes out on top.
 
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'Musih Tedji Xaviere's debut novel These Letters End In Tears is a beautifully tender, heartfelt story about love and the devastating consequences of a world that is not yet all accepting. Her prose is deft and delicate, pulling you quickly in and holding you, as though you were living it.' – JJ Bola
 
'An urgent and devastating story about the cost of living in a place that refuses to recognize your humanity. With vivid and textured prose, Xaviere weaves a tale readers will not soon forget.' – Soon Wiley
 
'A tender, moving portrait of forbidden desire. In deft, clear prose, Xaviere presents us with the devastating and yet redemptive power of love.'  —Chukwuebuka Ibeh, author of Blessings
 
'An engaging debut of a memorable forbidden love beautifully narrated by one of the voices to watch.'  —Zukiswa Wanner, author of The Madams
 
'Xaviere has woven together a needed story about love and how that love gets torn apart by homophobia. In lovely prose and an intimate epistolary style, we follow Bessem's journey in finding her long-lost love.' – Soraya Palmer
 
'Xaviere writes with care and love. A beautiful story spanning years, is delicately told making it impossible to hold back the tears that surged forward. Xaviere is an author who weaves words together in such a way that they haunt you long after, you've read the last page. A gorgeous and heart wrenching debut.' – Kelechi Okafor