Nineteenth-century Sudan, wracked by religious, cultural and political differences, is brilliantly evoked in Mahjoub's most ambitious book yet. A colourful cast of soldiers and ascetics, nationalists and cynics, Arabs and Europeans, Muslims and Christians - some wise, most misguided - play bit parts in a vast conflict few of them can comprehend. As the rumblings of war become deafening, the narrative races towards a conclusion that is both satisfying and profoundly disturbing.