An extraordinary evocation of the desert and its people by a woman who dressed as a man in order to travel alone and unimpeded throughout North AfricaIn 1897 Isabelle Eberhardt, at the age of 20, left an already unconventional life in Geneva for the Morroccan frontier. Gripped by spiritual restlessness and the desire to break free from the confinements of her society she traveled into the desert, and into the heart of Islam. Her experiences inspired a profound self...

INTRODUCED BY WILLIAM ATKINS, author of The Immeasurable World'I am merely an eccentric, a dreamer who wishes to live far from the civilized world, as a free nomad.'Isabelle Eberhardt's writing chronicles, in passionate prose, her travels in French colonial North Africa at the turn of the 20th century. Often dressed in male clothing and assuming a man's name, she worked as a war correspondent, married a Muslim non-commissioned officer, conv...