Desertion

Early one morning in 1899, a Muslim man, Hassanali, sets out for a mosque but doesn't get there. Out of the desert stumbles an Englishman who collapses at Hassanali's feet: Martin Pearce-writer, traveler, something of an Orientalist. Hassanali cares for Pearce until the Englishman is taken to the home of colonial officer Frederick Turner to recuperate. When Pearce returns to thank his Good Samaritan, he meets and is enraptured by Rehana, Hassanali's sister. And so begins the passionate, illicit love affair-two lives and cultures colliding-that informs the woven tapestry of "Desertion." Abdulrazak Gurnah is the author of six novels and was short-listed for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award.