THIRST

Based the author’s experience living among Nigerien nomads in Tchin-Tabaraden, this fictional account follows 18-year-old Lark as she teaches English in one of Africa’s most remote deserts.

Expertly weaving history with an identity narrative, this novel delivers a first-hand account of life with the Tuaregs. Lark Stevens is born and raised at the Gaia Commune in California. In 1989, her 18th year, she endures heartbreak: When her medically fragile, beloved best friend, Gita, and her boyfriend, Roy, have an affair, Lark pleads for immediate acceptance to the Peace Corps. Once accepted, Lark ventures off to Africa, adopting the poet W.H. Auden’s idea that “you couldn’t be healed until you went to the desert.” Lark learns to teach English and ventures to Tchin-Tabaraden, a primitive village in the Sahel in Niger, the sandy space where the nomadic Tuaregs reside. While there, Lark endures illness, an unanticipated pregnancy, dehydration, and loss of a friend back home. She must integrate who she once was and who she becomes into her identity. The narrative stakes include survival for the Tuaregs and Lark herself as she learns to live in the desert and fight for a tribe in which she believes. Expertly weaving actual history and Lark’s identity narrative, the author uses sensory details, cultural and religious traditions, and a savvy narrative structure to both construct a young woman’s story and document a cultural perspective. The text also illustrates the natural trajectories of relationships and the emotional longing inherent in a character of Lark’s age. Within the multiple stories, Barron embeds themes beyond the dramatic conflicts of person verses self, other, and nature, exploring what can happen to societies with governments that neglect to value native people as they are. Although the ending feels abrupt and a bit underdeveloped, this is a remarkable novel, integrating aspects of cultural identity into multiple narratives.

An authentic celebration of Tuareg culture.