• ISBN13: 9780199489428
• Binding: Paperback
• Subject: English Literature
• Publisher: Oxford UP
• Publisher Imprint: Oxford UP
• Publication Date: September 16, 2018
• Pages: 214
• Original Price: INR 595.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 254 grams
• BISAC Subject(s): Memoirs

About the Book Journeying from the green, rain-soaked Kerala into the amphitheatre of the Sun, our traveller-journalist finds that there is no better metaphor than the desert to instil the lessons of life and death, love and hatred, thirst and water. From a single shower of rain which brings the gaaf tree back to life after a decade to the ever-shifting dunes of gold and thousand-year-old sand palaces, the mysterious poetry of the desert is everywhere on display, if one but has the eye and heart to see it. As the deserts of Nafud, Dahna, and Rub’ al Khali in Arabia both embrace and trap the travellers, the outpouring of the landscape’s longing for rivers recalls a past filled with water. This narrative describes the history, prehistory, archaeology, legends, folklore, and travails of the émigré Asian work force that tames the harsh desert as never before. About the Author
V. Muzafer Ahamed is the periodicals editor of Madhyamam Daily, Kerala, India, and winner of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award (2010) for travel writing .
Translated by P.J. Mathew is a bilingual journalist with two decades of experience in English journalism and three decades in Malayalam.

V. Muzafer Ahamed, Periodicals Editor, Madhyaman Daily, P.J. Mathew, Freelance Journalist and Translator,

1. V. Muzafer Ahamed is currently the Periodicals Editor of the Kerala-based 'Madhyamam' group. He worked in Saudi Arabia for 13 years for the Jeddah-based 'Malayalam News' daily. He won the Kerala Sahitya Academy prize for travel writing in 2010 and is the author of seven books in Malayalam. He hails from Perintalmanna in Malappuram district of Kerala.

2. P. J. Mathew, the translator, is a bilingual journalist with two decades of experience in English journalism in New Delhi and three decades in Malayalam in Kerala. He oversaw the launching of three newspapers from Kerala and headed the journalism training programmes of three institutions and boasts of a host of leading journalists as their guru. He turned to translation after turning 65, and has brought out six volumes in Malayalam and two in English, This book is his third work of translation. At 75, he turned a widower in late 2017, and is blessed with two children and three grandchildren. He gave up growing rubber and turned to bamboo

three years ago, when rubber prices took a nosedive. He lives in Kozhikode.