Desert Divers

£6.99

Officially about the hold the Sahara has over the western psyche, Sven Lindqvist’s short book continually evokes the starkness, harshness and loneliness experienced there. He also intertwines a memoir of his childhood and youth, remembered while he’s out in the sun-drenched wasteland, as well as examining the tragicomic aspects of colonialism.

Lindqvist, who also wrote Exterminate All The Brutes, has lovingly written an impression of life in the Algerian and Moroccan sand-dunes, happily drawing on its consistent contradictions - where there’s trading in both date fruits and oil, and where you’ll meet ancient, traditional Bedouins and hi-tech falconers.

The desert divers of the title are the people that used to clean the deep wells, and he uses them in a fantastic metaphor for his efforts to bring to the surface the stories of colonial slaughter and exploitation that came before him - and as a metaphor for his own examination of his childhood memories. Superb.