Young Nour is a North African desert tribesman. It is 1909, and as the First World War looms Nour's tribe - the Blue Men - are forced from their lands by French colonial invaders. Spurred on by thirst, hunger, suffering, they seek guidance from a great spiritual leader. The holy man sends them even further from home, on an epic journey northward, in the hope of finding a land in which they can again be free.

Decades later, an orphaned descendant of the Blue Men - a girl called Lalla - is living in a shantytown on the coast of Morocco. Lalla has inherited both the pride and the resilience of her tribe - and she will need them, as she makes a bid to escape her forced marriage to a wealthy older man. She flees to Marseilles, where she experiences both the hardships of immigrant life - as a hotel maid - and the material prosperity of those who succeed - when she becomes a successful model. And yet Lalla does not betray the legacy of her ancestors.

In these two narratives set in counterpoint, Nobel Prize-winning novelist J. M. G. Le Clezio tells - powerfully and movingly - the story of the 'last free men' and of Europe's colonial legacy - a story of war and exile and of the endurance of the human spirit.

The international bestseller, by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2008, available for the first time in English translation. Hailed by the Swedish Academy as Le Clezio's 'definitive breakthrough as a novelist', Desert is an epic novel that spans the twentieth century and ranges across two continents, from the North African desert to the streets of Marseilles.

About the Author
J. M. G. Le Clezio was born on 13 April 1940 in Nice and was educated at the University College of Nice and at Bristol and London universities. Since publication of his first novel, Le Proces verbal (The Interrogation), he has written over forty highly acclaimed books, while his work has been translated into thirty-six languages. He divides his time between France (Nice, Paris and Brittany), New Mexico and Mauritius. In 2008 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.


Book Information
ISBN 9781848873810
Author J.M.G Le Clezio
Format Paperback
Page Count 368
Imprint Atlantic Books
Publisher Atlantic Books
Weight(grams) 345g
Dimensions(mm) 26mm * 198mm * 129mm