Description
In 1899, on the East African coast, a timid shopkeeper and the voice of the dawn prayer finds an exhausted stranger stumbling out of the desert—an Englishman whose arrival sets in motion a chain of intimate, unsettling encounters. As he recovers, Martin Pearce’s attention turns toward the household around him, drawing him into the lives, loyalties, and unspoken histories of those who live at the crossroads of empire, trade, and belonging. Through Hassanali and his sister Rehana, the novel explores how love and desire are shaped by family memory, social expectation, and the quiet pressures of colonial presence. Abdulrazak Gurnah’s lyrical, humane storytelling—rooted in his Zanzibari sensibility—examines themes of displacement, cultural inheritance, and the costs of “desertion” in both personal and political terms.
Available Editions
paperback
Bloomsbury
Published Jan 1, 2005
262 pages
ISBN: 9780747577560
Reviews
No ratings yet. Be the first!
No written reviews yet.
Details
First Published
2005
Language
eng
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah.