Description
Escaping from the village where he was born, from a region ravaged by poverty, hunger and pestilence, young Ilias arrives in a small seaside town where he watches the parade of the Security Forces in German East Africa in awe. Years later, in 1914, while the great war between the British and the Germans is imminent, in Tanga, Tanzania, Ilias decides to enlist in the German army, which consists mainly of African mercenaries, promising his little sister that he will soon return. His promise will never be fulfilled and the mystery of what happened to Ilias will shadow Afiya's life until she meets Hamza, a generous and dreamy deserter who managed to escape the horrors of war. The two will experience an unexpected love story that will unite two families and two continents, Africa and Europe. Blending historical evidence into moving fiction, Abdulrazak Gurna offers us a great work of literature about Africa, the legacy of colonialism, the horrors of war, and the incalculable contradictions of human nature.
English 
Ελληνικά