Desertion

By the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature''A careful and heartfelt exploration of the way memory inevitably consoles and disappoints us'' Sunday Times ''Beautifully written and pleasurable ... The work of a maestro'' Guardian''An absorbing novel about abandonment and loss'' Daily Telegraph___________________________________Early one morning in 1899 in a small town along the coast from Mombasa Hassanali sets out for the mosque. But he never gets there for out of the desert stumbles an ashen and exhausted Englishman who collapses at his feet. That man is Martin Pearce - writer traveller and something of an Orientalist. After Pearce has recuperated he visits Hassanali to thank him for his rescue and meets Hassanali''s sister Rehana; he is immediately captivated. In this crumbling town on the edge of civilised life with the empire on the brink of a new century a passionate love affair begins that brings two cultures together and which will reverberate through three generations and across continents.