Tormented with regrets for his military past, and hoping to find the part of himself he believes is missing, a young ex-special forces war veteran goes in search of the legendary Lost Oasis in the remote Sahara. Travelling by camel and on foot, he meets desert nomads with many strange and wonderful tales to tell. He works as a camel herder, is taken on as a hand with a salt-caravan, and becomes the apprentice of a nomad kahin or holy man, skilled in casting the sands – a method of divination. Over the long and arduous journey, experiencing heat, cold, hunger, thirst, danger, and deprivation, the kahin’s arcane knowledge leads him into a rich world of spiritual beauty - a reality that transcends the mundane limits of civilization. Searching for the Lost Oasis, in a landscape defined by outsiders as the ultimate in harshness and hostility, he finds instead a world where relations are governed by muhanni – kindness, generosity, mutual aid and well-being - where there is no fine boundary between humans and nature, and where survival depends not on conflict but on cooperation. Finally, obliged to complete his journey alone, he comes to understand that the Lost Oasis is a symbol not only of his lost self, but also of the enchantment that industrial man has driven from the Earth. The Oasis of the Last Story is a collection of tales from the desert, connected by a narrative of adventure and spiritual quest.
Author
Michael Asher is an author, historian, deep ecologist, and notable desert explorer who has covered more than 30,000 miles on foot and camel. He spent three years living with a traditional nomadic tribe in Sudan. Michael Asher was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, in 1953, and attended Stamford School. At 18 he enlisted in the 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, and saw active service in Northern Ireland during The Troubles there in the 1970s. He studied English Language & Linguistics at the University of Leeds. at the same time serving in B Squadron, 23rd SAS Regiment. He also studied at Carnegie College, Leeds, where he qualified as a teacher of physical education and English. In 1978-9, he worked for the RUC Special Patrol Group anti-terrorist patrols, but left after less than a year. He took a job as a volunteer English teacher in the Sudan in 1979. The author of twenty-one published books, and presenter/director of six TV documentaries, Asher has lived in Africa for much of his life, and speaks Arabic and Swahili. He is married to Arabist and photographer Mariantonietta Peru, with whom he has a son and a daughter, Burton and Jade. He currently lives in Nairobi, Kenya.
