Desirable Glance

Banned in 2008 by the Sudanese authorities, this novel now appears in French. Endangered in his own country, where corruption, war and arbitrary are the rule, Noureddine is about to leave “the Great Nation”, a dictatorship governed by “His Excellency the honorable infallible”, and his mentor, Abu Sharaye Al-Wawi. In the hall of the airport, Noureddine observes his compatriots and remembers the many horror scenes he has seen himself or he has heard about. He also recalls the strange career of His Excellency the honorable infallible, his methods of government and the hagiographical legends surrounding his personality. Though the Great Nation is never overtly quoted, the author, who originates from Darfur, denounces of course the policy of ethnic cleansing perpetrated in his country. It is a great novel, a testimony from inside made by a committed intellectual, written in a style which mixes realism and metaphor, poetry and hardship.