Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
All characters reduced
The Dust of Promises - cover

We are sorry! The publisher (or author) gave us the instruction to take down this book from our catalog. But please don't worry, you still have more than 500,000 other books you can enjoy!

The Dust of Promises

Ahlem Mosteghanemi

Translator Nancy Roberts

Publisher: Bloomsbury UK

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

'In a voice as dim as a lighthouse on a rainy night, he said, “Beware of loving a woman who loves bridges.”' 
______________________ 
Once upon a September in Paris… 
 
Still heartsick over the break-up of his relationship with the alluring, elusive novelist Hayat, the narrator of The Dust of Promises finds himself adrift in Paris, where he has come to receive a photography award. 
 
His photograph of a traumatised war-orphan has been declared profoundly affecting by the judges, but he knows that no picture can ever fully capture the desolation and destruction he has witnessed in his Algerian homeland. 
 
When he stumbles into an art exhibition on one of the capital's side streets, he is struck by the power of the paintings and feels impelled to learn more about the artist – an Algerian exile whose painful longing for the country he has lost shines out of his work. 
 
The artist is none other than Khaled, the man who haunted the pages of Hayat's first novel, just as the narrator was inextricably entangled in her second. As the two men embark on a tentative friendship, a twist of fate brings Hayat herself to France, where the destinies of all of them will once again collide. 
 
The final novel in the international bestselling trilogy from 'the literary phenomenon' (Elle) Ahlem Mosteghanemi, The Dust of Promises is a haunting, elegiac story of love, memory and betrayal - and of what it means to come home. 
______________________ 
'Remarkable, insightful ... The elegiac quality is present not just in the themes, but also in the astonishingly poetic language throughout … I stopped and marvelled every few pages ... This is one of the richest and most evocative books that I have read all year' Independent 
 
'Ahlem has carved a place for herself as one of the most important writers of the Arab world' Youssef Chahine, Egyptian director, winner of the Cannes Film Lifetime Achievement Award
Available since: 01/13/2017.
Print length: 320 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • Escape from Paradise - cover

    Escape from Paradise

    Robert J. Szmidt

    • 0
    • 2
    • 0
    A secret hidden on a colony world could affect the course of a war between humanity and an alien civilization in this bestselling space opera from Poland. It is the mid-twenty-fourth century. After colonizing a significant portion of Orion’s Arm, humanity encounters an advanced alien civilization, which—unwilling to make contact—starts a total war. There is more at stake here than just the conquest of territory. It’s a matter of survival for the human race.  On one of the hurriedly evacuated planets, Captain Darski wages his own private war to save as many people as possible. The colony in the Ulietta System hides a much bigger secret, though—one that could possibly alter the course of the war. Book two in The Fields of Long-Forgotten Battles series.
    Show book
  • Opening Wonders - cover

    Opening Wonders

    Rajnar Vajra

    • 0
    • 1
    • 0
    Countless un-parallel universes intersect in a place where science and magic function perfectly. A Crossroads World. A world that holds a fantastic and deadly secret. An ultra-advanced species, the Common, govern this world and invite other advanced species to set up enclaves where the planet's extraordinary properties draw an assortment of gods and demons like supernatural moths to a flame. The first human allowed there, Professor David Goldberg, is secretly tasked by Earth’s governments to observe the Common.But Goldberg’s mission might not be as secret as he thinks. Someone or something with unknown motivations sends truly terrifying monsters bent on taking him down. Opening Wonders. Fantasy, science fiction, mythology, adventure, mystery, rich history—and more.
    Show book
  • The First Murder - cover

    The First Murder

    Carol Goodman Kaufman

    • 1
    • 3
    • 0
    The ME ruled her death an accident. He was dead wrong.
     
    When Mary Jane Bennett is found dead in her bed— alone, strangled by her own scarf, and with every door in the house locked — the medical examiner rules her death accidental, the result of a sex game gone horribly awry. State police decline to investigate further, but Queensbridge Police Chief Caleb Crane doesn't buy for a minute that his good friend died this way, so he undertakes his own investigation. Facing town councilors afraid of bad publicity, an angry medical examiner, and his own personal demons, he labors to solve what he believes is the first-ever murder in his pastoral Berkshire Hills village. Complicating things: the list of suspects includes some of the people to whom he is closest — including his own wife.
     
    “. . . [a] smartly-paced debut novel . . .”—Gerald Elias, author of the Daniel Jacobus mystery series
     
    “. . . one of my favorite mystery reads this year . . . With a talent reminiscent of Louise Penny, Kaufman creates a small town ambience of alliances and hidden resentments among characters whose humanity draws you in while raising your suspicions. The First Murder is an engaging and intriguing journey to an exciting conclusion.”—Sharon Healy-Yang, author of the Jessica Minton Mystery Series
     
    “. . . [a] deftly constructed debut novel [that] kept me guessing until the very end.”—Leslie Wheeler, award-winning author of the Berkshire Hilltown Mysteries
    Show book
  • The Ministry of Pain - A Novel - cover

    The Ministry of Pain - A Novel

    Dubravka Ugrešic

    • 0
    • 3
    • 0
    Far from home, a fractured community of Yugoslav outcasts struggle with their lives in award–winning author Dubravka Ugrešić’s novel The Ministry of Pain.   Having fled the violent breakup of Yugoslavia, Tanja Lucic is now a professor of literature at the University of Amsterdam, where she teaches a class filled with other young Yugoslav exiles, most of whom earn meager wages assembling leather and rubber S&M clothing at a sweatshop they call the “Ministry.”   Abandoning literature, Tanja encourages her students to indulge their “Yugonostalgia” in essays about their personal experiences during their homeland’s cultural and physical disintegration. But Tanja’s act of academic rebellion incites the rage of one renegade member of her class—and pulls her dangerously close to another—which, in turn, exacerbates the tensions of a life in exile that has now begun to spiral seriously out of control.  “A shiningly weird and powerful novel. . . . [It] approaches perfection.” —Washington Post  “Soulful, often searing. . . . This is a work that comes from the gut, one that deserves to be read.” —New York Times Book Review  “Splendidly ambitious. . . . She is a writer to follow. A writer to be cherished.” —Susan Sontag
    Show book
  • The Almost Truth - an extraordinary novel based on real events - cover

    The Almost Truth - an...

    Anne Hamilton

    • 0
    • 1
    • 0
    'In a life full of books and not enough time to read them, I never read a novel twice. This one I will' Clo CareyWinner of the Irish Novel Fair 2021 
    A compelling story of family, secrets, identity, and a reminder that love and life can surprise you… right until the very end. 
    When Alina’s son, Fin, traces his long-absent birthfather, it’s the catalyst for decades of secrets to implode in Alina’s neatly ordered life. 
    With the sudden appearance of Rory, and the ever-present pull of a very different life in Bangladesh, she’s left reeling. 
    Three relationships, all of them built on half-truths. All Alina can truly be sure of, is that you can choose your family, you just can’t choose who they will turn out to be. 
    'A lovely, compelling read about love, family, and finding yourself' Becky Hunter, author of One Moment 
    'Intricately explores themes of home, family, identity, love, and loss, inviting readers to ponder the universal truths — and sometimes lies — that shape our lives' Jane Labous, author of Past Participle 
    'Anne Hamilton handles with ease and grace this complex and compelling 'big Hindi movie' of a novel' Caroline Moir, author of The Brockenspectre 
    'Set across Edinburgh, Bangladesh and Dublin, mysteries and family secrets abound in this intriguing novel' Elissa Soave, author of Ginger and Me 
    'A captivating tale of human dilemmas and the consequences of half-truths' Olga Wojtas 
    'A complex tale of interwoven cultures, told truthfully with humour and outright laughter, but always with Anne Hamilton's trademark sensitivity, understanding and honesty' Paul Soye, author of The Boy in the Gap
    Show book
  • The Fuhrer's Orphans - cover

    The Fuhrer's Orphans

    David Laws

    • 0
    • 1
    • 0
    In this moving novel based on true events, a teacher and a British spy discover a group of children hiding from the Nazis in WWII Munich. 
     
    When their parents are taken to concentration camps, twenty-seven children are left alone, hungry, and scared. Claudia Kellner, a German elementary school teacher, discovers the group hiding in a deserted Munich railroad yard. Only able to hide two of them in her home, she is desperate to find shelter for the others. 
     
    Meanwhile, British spy Peter Chesham has penetrated Third Reich territory. But his critical mission is interrupted when he discovers the orphans’ hiding place. Following through on his orders would have fatal consequences for them. But giving up could mean losing the war. Now Peter and Claudia must work together, attempting an impossible rescue operation with the children’s lives—and the fate of the world—at stake.
    Show book