Sandstorm

Description

A first novel by the prize-winning poet and critically acclaimed author of Darien Dogs. Former foreign correspondent Charles Mortimer is all washed up, living a hand-to-mouth existence in Manhattan, wondering how things could have gone so wrong for him. A chance discovery of a newspaper obituary takes him back to the beginning of his career, when he was a young, hopeful man reporting from the Sahara Desert in the company of beautiful French photographer Celeste Dumas. The two narrowly escape death by bullet, grenade, thirst and heatstroke and, ultimately, drowning. By the end of their adventure, Mortimer has begun his life as a successful, cynical journalist. Fifteen years roll by, and Mortimer finds himself again in Algeria, where he perpetrates the great error of his professional life and realizes, finally, what it was he lost so long ago in the desert wastes. By the winner of the Author's Club First Novel Award, Guardian First Book Award and The Times First Book Award.

Henry Shukman's first poetry collection, In Doctor No's Garden, was a Book of the Year in the Guardian and The Times and won the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize. His second poetry collection, Archangel, has garnered much critical acclaim. He was Poet in Residence at the Wordsworth Trust and currently lives in New Mexico.

Masterfully portrays the desolate entities across which his characters move... Ambitious: read with the care it merits, it guides us towards a clearer and more accomodating view of the world * Guardian * Shukman has Graham Greene's gift for capturing the essence of the exotic locations by using an individual, melancholy style... Consistently moving -- Jake Kerridge * Daily Telegraph * Shukman's prose is utterly seductive * Literary Review * Shukman is superb, like Conrad on speed -- Giles Foden Wonderfully evocative... A gripping, melancholy and intelligent book about the failures of romanticism, about personal responsibility, and about the wrong choices * Sunday Times *