Desertion
by Gurnah, Abdulrazak
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Fine in Fine dust jacket
- ISBN 10
- 0375423540
- ISBN 13
- 9780375423543
- Seller
-
Wheatfield, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
Early one morning in 1899, during Britain’s embrace of the White man’s Burden, in a small town on the east cost of Africa, Hassanali sets out for his observances at the mosque, but he never gets there. Out of the desert stumbles an Englishman who collapses at his feet. The man is Martin Pearce--writer, traveler, Orientalist--and Hassanali cares for him until he is taken to the home of a colonial officer to recuperate. Later, visiting Hassanali to thank him for his rescue, Pearce meets and is enraptured by Hassanali’s sister, Rehana. So beings a passionate and illicit love affair that brings two cultures together: a love affair that will reverberate through three generations and across continents, its consequences surfacing in Zanzibar in the early 1950s, when, as the country moves inexorably toward independence--and revolution--Rehana’s granddaughter is caught up in another forbidden affair. Desertion is at once concerned with the political and personal scandals of empire; the weight of tradition--of religion and culture--in quotidian lives; the role of women in Muslim society; the vicissitudes of love and the inexorability of miscegenation. It is a spellbinding, masterfully conceived, profoundly affecting work of fiction, and it should certainly bring Abdulrazak Gurnah the wider attention he deserves.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- A Good Read (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 178308
- Title
- Desertion
- Author
- Gurnah, Abdulrazak
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine in Fine dust jacket
- Edition
- First Edition; First Printing
- ISBN 10
- 0375423540
- ISBN 13
- 9780375423543
- Publisher
- Pantheon
- Place of Publication
- New York, New York, U.s.a.
- Date Published
- 2005
- Keywords
- 0375423540
Terms of Sale
A Good Read
Refunds issued for all items returned within 30 days undamaged. Returns resulting from the item received by the buyer being different from the one described in the Biblio listing will result in a refund of the book value and all related shipping costs upon return of the item. Books returned for any other reason within 30 days will result in a refund of the book value only.
About the Seller
A Good Read
About A Good Read
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes: