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.
