As usual Isabelle Eberhardts stormy love affair with the Algerian desert sets the physical and emotional scene in this collection of short stories. Written in French in the late 1800s and translated by Karim Hamdy and Laura Rice her characters live love work and die with passions as fierce and brutal as the midday sun reflections as gentle as the evening breeze and happiness as beautiful and fleeting as the spring desert in bloom. As in The Oblivion Seekers Eberhardts descriptions and voices are as lyrical harsh and ultimately captivating as the North African land and people she knew.This selection of short stories reportage and travel journals which glow with sensuous detail superbly evokes the life of the desert towns and nomadic peoples of the Saharan region of Morocco and Algeria.