The Longing of the Dervish

WINNER OF THE NAGUIB MAHFOUZ MEDAL FOR LITERATURE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION

An epic of love and revenge in a time of war and slavery

At the close of the nineteenth century, freed slave Bakhit is let out of prison with the overthrow of the Mahdist state in Sudan. On the brink of death, the memory of his beloved Theodora is all that has sustained him through seven years of grim incarceration—that and his vow to avenge her killing.

Set against a backdrop of war, religious fervor, and the monumental social and political upheavals of the time, The Longing of the Dervish is a love story in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Lyrical and evocative, Hammour Ziada’s masterfully crafted novel is about sorrow, hope, and the cruelty of fate.