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2000s: A man volunteers abroad for a year but finds himself caught up in the desert’s lair
The Water Thief
What you need to know before your trail
When a heart attack kills his father, young architect Nick abandons his comfortable London life to volunteer abroad for a year – a last chance to prove himself, and atone for old sins.
But in a remote village on the edge of the Sahara, dangerous currents soon engulf him: a simmering family conflict, hidden violence and fanaticism, his host’s lonely wife hiding secrets of her own. Their attraction threatens both their worlds, blurring the line between right and wrong. And when a deadly drought descends it brings an irrevocable choice. With all their hopes at stake, should he take matters into his own hands? Or let fate run its course? His decision has life-changing consequences for them all.
Travel Guide
Sahara Desert
Africa
The long drive north began at dawn. Somwhere beyond the capital’s outskirts, Nick realised the invisible boundary between the living world and desert. Lush greens faded to gold, the rolling fields flattened into plains of yellow earth. The land became vast and encircling , cast out to a remote horizon, pathless and bright with a parched sweetness that moved him. It was like sailing alone into unchartered seas.
A single jaranda tree breaks the landscape’s palette
The village
The village is never named but it appears swiftly like a mirage. There’s nothing around it except desert and a while minaret acting as a kind of beacon in the dusty landscape somewhere on the edge of the Sahara Desert.
There are no roads but sand tracks and dust follows you and everythwer and covers you from head to toe. Some women wear the black-ckecked keffiyh seen in the news from the Middle East. Houses are sandy coloured. Earthly smells fill the air
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Water Thief
Destination : The Sahara Desert, Africa Author/Guide: Claire Hajaj Departure Time:2000s
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