Overview

One solitary thought in order to survive in the stupor ot the heat- evening always comes. Therre is always an end. Think only of that. Don't think. In a desert prison camp, a man is rotting, half-alive at the bottom of a well. Andres has been there, held in horrific conditions, for many years Around him, other men are similarly imprisoned, guarded by a handful of soldiers. On the outskirts of the fort, Tamia, a young woman, hides behind rocks, hoping to hear news of her lover who is thought to be a prisoner. After months of furtive meetings with one of the guards she has desuced she eventually learns that her man died months ago. That same night, she finds Andres making his escape. After years of solitary confinement, he looks more dead than alive. She decides to help him and leads him to a ruined village where an old woman gives them shelter. With Tamia's care, Andres gradually recovers and a strong bond grows between them. Later, the couple have an affair and take refuge in the city with Tamia's family. Andres' terrorist past comes to light while Tamia discovers the unbelievable truth about her dead lover. LOST BODIES is both a heartbreaking love story and a s

Full Product Details

9780099484974

Table of Contents

Reviews

A tightly plotted psychological suspense story that delivers, on the way, a sharp-focused worm's-eye view of terrorism and repression in north Africa -- Guardian Rachel Hore Events unfold to the beat of a story so beautifully made that you scarcely note its shapely precision until it is over... powerful and brutal... engrossing Scotland on Sunday Gantheret writes with a tough sensuality reminiscent of Michael Ondaatje Literary Review An emotionally intimate tale of personal lives under an intolerant government -- Tom Fleming Time Out A delicate, unusual love story... With swift, spare strokes, Gantheret creates two strong, utterly believable people, flawed and suffering yet far from pitiable. Tania, in particular,... is a superb heroine, easy to love and hard to leave -- Nina Caplan Metro

A man and a woman, each ruined in their own ways by a brutal North African prison camp, find solace in each other and embark on a difficult emotional journey.Deep in an unnamed North African desert, 40 men suffer a fate arguably worse than death - left to languish indefinitely at the bottom of wells, they have contact with the world only once a day, when a guard changes the buckets they use for tepid water, rancid food and waste. A prisoner, Andres, discovers one night that the guard has accidentally left a rope dangling in the well. Miraculously, he escapes and is discovered, half-dead, on the outskirts of the camp by Tamia, a beautiful woman who just found out (after seducing a guard) that her lover, Elijah, another prisoner, is dead. Tamia helps Andres escape and nurses him back to health in the home of a nearby villager, a kind and lonely old woman who sees in the couple her estranged son and daughter. Andres and Tamia fall tentatively in love, but each is still haunted by memories of those that they left behind - Elijah, for whom Tamia risked everything, and Andres' wife, Lea. When Andres is well, they travel back to the capital to stay with Tamia's sister and her husband, a cousin of Elijah. There, they must face several truths - Lea, believing that Andres was dead, has remarried. And Andres, once a member of a terrorist resistance movement, discovers that he had known Elijah, and that he had been hiding many secrets from Tamia. Not only was Elijah a leader of the resistance movement, which surprised Tamia, but he was also known to be a traitor working as a double agent for the police. This betrayal, as well as the knowledge that he might actually be alive somewhere in Syria, leaves her with many decisions, particularly now that much of her loyalty lies with Andres.Pleasantly simple language, stark imagery and a surprisingly hopeful tone play nicely off each other in this promising, though quiet, debut novel. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Fran ois Gantheret is a psychoanalyst. He has written several books (essays and short stories) but Lost Bodies is his first novel. He lives in Paris.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available