A la vora de la mar

Fleeing from the mythical island of Zanzibar, land of perfume and spice merchants lulled by the monsoons, Saleh Omar, a 65-year-old merchant, arrives at Gatwick airport with a mahogany box full of incense and a false passport. To contact him, social services turn to Latif Mahmud, a Swahili poet, teacher and voluntary exile who lives peacefully in a London apartment. When the two men meet in a small town by the sea, a long story of love and betrayal, seduction and deception, random displacement and litigation that began long ago begins to unravel.