' Dazzling gritty brilliance. This is a novel of scorching distinction' Sunday Times Under an endless & unforgiving sky four travellers enter the Judean desert in search of redemption. Instead amidst the barren rocks they are met by a dangerous man Musa & fall under his dark influence. But there is a fervent solitary figure also sharing their landscape denying the temptations of his neighbours & ultimately the needs of his own body. So begin forty days & nights in one of the most inhospitable terrains on earth. ' One of the finest novels I've read in years' The Times ' Completely captivating' Literary Review ' Absolutely compelling' Observer 'stunning. A writer of hallucinatory skill' John Updike