Las portadoras de flores

On September 24, 2021, Rachel Eliza Griffiths married the novelist Salman Rushdie. That same day, hundreds of miles away, Kamilah Aisha Moon—a poet, close friend, and soul sister to Griffiths who was slated to give a speech at the wedding—died suddenly. Eleven months later, as Griffiths tried to rebuild her life—caught between heart-wrenching grief and immense love—a brutal attack nearly claimed her husband’s life. With trauma compounding trauma, she realized that to survive her grief, she would have to mourn not only the death of her friend but also the woman she herself had been on her wedding day. In the process of rebuilding herself, Griffiths retraces the seventeen-year friendship she shared with Moon. Together, they found inspiration in the great women who came before them and fought to carve out a place in the world and fully embrace their identities as poets, artists, and Black women. Interwoven with the story of that unbreakable bond is the story of her relationship with Rushdie, the challenges they have overcome together, and the unwavering devotion that unites them.