The Rider has no memory of who he is, where he is, or how he came to be
lying--dying-- in the brutal heat of the North African desert. Rescued
by a band of deserters, the Rider begins to piece together his identity,
based on shards of recollection and the letters in his mailbag. The
Letter Bearer is unlike any other novel of World War Two. In the midst
of profound trauma, terrible warfare, and the nameless experience of
desertion, this gripping story asks us to consider how men build hope
when they have nothing left--not even a name.
When first published last year in London, Robert Allison's debut novel
was met with wide praise and was nominated for the Desmond Elliott
Prize, described by one of its judges as 'An excellent and elegant novel
written with patience and authority . . . Readers of Michael Ondaatje
and Paul Bowles will find the landscape familiar, but no reader will
ever forget the haunting and haunted story of this remarkable victim.