Il viaggiatore notturno

The novel takes its inspiration from Charles de Foucauld, who spent the last part of his life on the Assekrem plateau in Algeria. The protagonist is an ethologist who has come to the Assekrem to wait for the arrival of the swallows. The waiting, the desert landscape and Foucauld’s life and writings send him travelling back through the stories of his own life, among them his father, an Armenian named Zingirian, a bear fleeing the war in the Balkans and the siege of Tuzla. He weaves these together with the stories of the people around him, including his guide, Jibril.