MICHAEL ASHER

En las campañas británicas en Sudán en los últimos años de la reina Victoria hay más dosis de aventura que en las mejores novelas del género: evocadoras imágenes de los cuadros rotos por los derviches, las ametralladoras Gatling disparando sin cesar y los feroces guerreros «Fuzzy Wuzzi» cargando sobre las tropas británicas y egipcias, las cañoneras británicas por el Nilo, el Cuerpo de Camelleros o la carga del 21º de Lanceros en Omdurman… Héroes, personajes míticos: Gordon, Wolseley, Kitchener, Gladstone, Churchill, el Mahdi, el califa Abdallahi, y personajes trágicos como Hicks. Jartum arranca con la masacre de la columna de Hicks en Shaykan en 1883, y continúa con la llegada a Jartum de Charles Gordon, un héroe nacional británico, que enviado a Sudán para llevar a cabo la ocupación del país, decide resistir en la capital hasta su aniquilación por las fuerzas del Mahdi, tan sólo dos días antes de la llegada de las fuerzas de socorro lideradas por Wolseley y que se han desplazado por el Nilo con vapores y cruzado los desiertos en camello. Y el círculo se cierra en 1898, cuando tras quince años de dominio islámico sobre Sudán (es el primer estado islámico integrista de la historia), el brillante general Kitchener derrota en Omdurman a los derviches del califa Abdallahi, tras un penoso avance por el árido desierto nubio. El autor, magnífico conocedor del desierto, reconstruye este clásico relato de la gran última aventura del Imperio británico con un realismo difícilmente superable, a partir de textos de la época, de la investigación sobre las personalidades de los protagonistas y de la visita a los lugares en los que se desarrollaron los acontecimientos. Por primera vez, se aborda el relato de las campañas que tuvieron lugar en el Nilo entre 1883 y 1898, no sólo desde la perspectiva británica, sino también desde la visión de las tribus que combatieron al imperio, de su cultura, su religión y sus líderes. Un

Après une jeunesse chaotique dans un régiment de parachutistes anglais puis des études littéraires à Leeds, Michael Asher décide de prendre un poste d'instituteur au Soudan. Fasciné par les nomades qui vivent à la frontière de la Libye, il partagera leur existence et parcourra avec eux des milliers de kilomètres à dos de chameau jusqu'à se risquer en 1980, à vingt-sept ans, sur la "piste des Quarante Jours". Elle commence dans l'extrême-ouest du Soudan, pour traverser le désert d'oasis en oasis jusqu'au Nil, en Haute-Égypte la suprême initiation de qui se rêve nomade. « Pendant les trois années qu'a duré l'arabesque compliquée de mes voyages à travers le désert, ces gens ont été mes amis, mes compagnons et quelquefois mes ennemis. Je m'étais mis en route un peu comme on pare escalader une montagne. » « Comme écrivain et comme voyageur, Asher s'affirme ici en héritier de T. E. Lawrence et de Thesiger. » ( Geoffrey Moorhouse, Times)

Another dramatic, contemporary novel from the author of Rare Earth. Morocco, 1943: 14 year old Billy Sterling regains consciousness to find himself alone in the desert. Beside him is the wreckage of a light aircraft and the corpse of the pilot. Terrified, Billy soon realises that he is utterly stranded, alone, in a vast and hostile wilderness. He does not see the human eyes, watching him from a distance. London, 1950: George Bridger Sterling is still experiencing profound anguish over the disappearance of his son, who hasn't been seen for seven years. His terrible feeling of guilt allows him to persist in the belief that Billy is still alive. Then George is contacted by a mysterious stranger, who claims to be the co-pilot of the crashed plane, and has information that could lead to Billy -- for a price. Travelling to a vast, dangerous desert, accompanied only by a man he barely knows, let alone trusts, Sterling must retrace the vague footsteps left nearly a decade before. But why was the plane anywhere near the Western Sahara? And why are they not the only people interested in what was on board?The action is fast and furious, from the plane crash to tribal traditions, and the desert scenes are powerful and lyrical. Visually brilliant, with a wonderful range of characters from tribal warriors to double-agents, it will appeal to fans of Wilbur Smith and Andy McNab.

Michael Asher's investigation into the famous SAS operation, The Real Bravo Two Zero, became a bestseller, and his biography of Lawrence of Arabia was deemed "brilliant" by reviewers. Here, in a unique military memoir, he reveals his own background: how he joined the elite 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, and finally the SAS. Told he would fail the arduous training, he proved them all wrong. But after years of working with various branches of the military, and being stationed in Northern Ireland, Asher abandoned it all and departed for a new life in the Sudanese desert, where he has lived for years among the Bedouins.

A new departure for the author of Firebird and Eye of Ra, this novel is a dramatic, contemporary thriller: a David and Goliath story featuring western might against desert tribes, and the man who becomes their champion. The book opens in Sudan, with the discovery of a modern corpse in a remote archaelogical site, its heavy pack laden with samples of strange soils. Truman, the leader of the expedition, returns the pack in a container he was sending home -- to be forwarded to the dead man's business address. So begins an extraordinary adventure. Truman -- a man with a mysterious past -- is persuaded to go back to Sudan and bribe a hostile tribe to allow mining of the incredibly valuable minerals now discovered on their land. But he and his backers are not the only people to be after the rare earth - Truman also encounters various elements of the SIS, renegade Russians and Serbians, all of whom are prepared to use far more violent methods to seize what they want. Rescued by the tribe themselves from a brutal attack, Truman - unsure who his greatest enemies are -- becomes fascinated by the tribe's way of life, by the woman who is their prophetess and by his gradually returning memories of his previous life. Double-crossed by his backers, he finds his loyalties changing fast. The action is fast and furious, from helicopter crashes to desert storms, from camel charges to business skulduggery, and the desert scenes are powerful and lyrical, visually brilliant. There is a wonderful range of characters, wily Russians, tribal warriors, displaced SIS officers -- and the reader becomes immersed in Truman's initiation into the ways of such a different society.