A trippy journey through the Sahara and through time in this novel from Mauritania.

Barzakh: The Land In-Between opens with a prelude from the far future: archeologists excavate the memories of Gara, who lived in Barzakh, by processing crystals extracted from his skull. The rest of the book consists of flashbacks from Gara’s perspective (his memories), as he lives as an enslaved boy, and then jumps nine centuries forward, and then to sometime in our near future. Gara, disillusioned with—and driven by his hatred of—humankind, travels through time as he searches for a better version of humanity, having assumed that humans can evolve away from brutality and cruelty. It’s not a spoiler to say that he never finds what he hopes.

I enjoy reading around Africa, and particularly in SFF, because of the unique perspective each culture brings to the genre. Barzakh evokes the life of desert dwellers and nomads, and explores slavery, racism, and the desert economy, and is really wonderful on that level. The science fiction aspects are really unique, with an imagined future dystopia in a desert nation, and also that interesting concept of extracting memories from bone. Ould Ebnou’s style and pacing are meditative and slow, adding to the feeling of traversing the desert of time (whether deliberate, I don’t know); and that’s part of what makes the narrative feel trippy.

Recommended for those who enjoy unusual perspectives in SF. You won’t read many books like this.

Thank you to Iskanchi Press and to NetGalley for access.

Read Around the World: <b>Mauritania</b>

What a strange book.

At some points this was just brilliant and I was thoroughly sucked into the story and the life of the narrator, and then the tone would shift and it would become borderline tedious to read [and then I would go several days without reading it]. It made for a long reading time.

Did I like it? Yeeeessss? I didn't hate it and the parts I liked, I REALLY liked. The MC is an interesting character who time travels to three time frames to see if he can find decency in the world he is living in and each time he is desperately disappointed [as the world gets worse with each time jump]. It was definitely a commentary on the way the world seems headed today and seeing that portrayed was both interesting and disheartening. This is NOT a happy book by any stretch of the imagination and I was left feeling unsettled and depressed, but I think that is the point. It makes you think and reevaluate.

Even with the parts that were tedious for me, I am glad I read it. I had never heard of the author [or where he was from - I am learning so much more about the world now in doing Read Around the World, and I am grateful for the lessons I am learning] and I consider it a privilege to have read his book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Moussa Ould Ebnou, Marybeth Timmermann - Translator, and Iskanchi Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.