Zeit der Geister

Saraaya, a city in the contested center of Sudan. Here, William and Layla find each other – a love that cannot be, as they come from rival ethnic groups. However, the NGO's property where they both work is a free space and a crossroads of different worlds. Also living here is the American Dena, whose parents once fled from Sudan; she wants to realize a film project. And Alex, a cartographer from Cleveland, who is both fascinated by the mysterious Dena and perplexed by the confusing floodplain of the region that defies all Western standards. Then, a corpse found at the gate of the NGO shakes the fragile coexistence. Who is the dead man? What is the significance of the approaching rebels? Soon after, refugees seek shelter from the impending civil war at the organization, and weapons are discovered on the premises, threatening to escalate the situation. A grand novel about love in times of war, Africa, and the role of the West. Fatin Abbas is an extraordinary new international voice that masterfully tells the story of our increasingly interconnected world and reinterprets it.