The Endless Sea

Book excerpt: Zara Alam paints with a vivid brush, to create a heightened stylised world, and uses symbolism that is not only beautiful, but which also explores the latent psychology and internal landscape of her characters. While poetically evocative, and resonating with collective ideas and feelings, her prose still then tells a tale of love, spies, beauty and hope. Luc drives into a deserted London during a prolonged heatwave, to start a new life and leave the past behind. But his childhood friends have secrets here that span generations, and his new home and governmental occupation boast unsettling opulence and power, while his new neighbour, Mer, a woman who will not open herself to him, has him as though under a spell... During an intense, crisis ridden summer, Luc strives to unravel the secrets about him, and so, tries to help his friends whose lives are under threat, and yet, all the while he wishes that he could find his way to the new and untroubled life he sought in the first place, by falling in love with Mer.