An epic of love and revenge set against war and slavery. At the end of the nineteenth century, freed slave Bakhit is released from prison after the fall of the Mahdist state in Sudan. On the brink of death, he is sustained by memories of his beloved Theodora—and a vow to avenge her murder after seven years of brutal imprisonment. Set amid war, religious upheaval, and political collapse, The Longing of the Dervish is a powerful love story born in the harshest of circumstances. Lyrical and evocative, Hammour Ziada’s novel explores loss, endurance, and the cruelty of fate.