num_pages: 262
description: In 1899, an Englishman named Martin Pearce stumbles out of the desert into an East African coastal town and is rescued by Hassanali, a shopkeeper whose beautiful sister Rehana nurses Pearce back to health. Pearce and Rehana begin a passionate illicit love affair, which resonates fifty years later when the narrator’s brother falls madly in love with Rehana’s granddaughter. In the story of two forbidden love affairs and their effects on the lovers’ families, Abdulrazak Gurnah brilliantly dramatizes the personal and political consequences of colonialism, the vicissitudes of love, and the power of fiction.
language: English
title: Desertion
titlecomplete: Desertion
genres: Historical Fiction, Nobel Prize, Africa, Tanzania, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature, Romance, Fiction, African Literature
ratings_count: 1141
publisher: Anchor