{"product_id":"book-h0l3","title":"Desertion","description":"Writing at the peak of his powers, Abdulrazak Gurnah gives us in Desertion a spellbinding  novel of forbidden love and cultural upheaval, with  consequences powerfully reverberating  through three generations and across continents—from the heyday of the British empire  to the aftermath of African independence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Early one morning in 1899, in a small,  dilapidated town along the coast of Mombassa, 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\u003cbr\u003e 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—by her gorgeous eyes and  tragic aura. And so begins the passionate, illicit love affair—two lives and cultures  colliding—that informs the rich, finely woven tapestry of Desertion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Gurnah, who  has been short-listed for the Booker Prize, deftly and dramatically evokes the personal  and political scandals of empire, the weight of tradition—of religion and culture—in  everyday lives, the role of women in Muslim society, the vicissitudes of love, the  complexities of filial relationships, the inexorability of miscegenation, and the  power of fiction to charm and to harm. Desertion is a highly achieved, riveting work  of imagination, brimming with controlled figural inventiveness, psychological acuity,  and moral complexity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCover art by Lubaina Himid\/ Hollybush Gardens\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49322698113328,"sku":"BDh0l3","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/526566-h0l3-Square.jpg?v=1733487363","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-h0l3","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}