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Gold Dust

Ibrahim al-Koni · back to the book

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24 books with the same feel

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All the Pretty Horses

Cormac McCarthy · 301 pages

*All the Pretty Horses* is a novel by American author Cormac McCarthy published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1992. Its romanticism (in contrast to the bleakness of McCarthy's earlier work) brought the writer much public attention. It was a bestseller, and it won both the U.S. National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Along with *The Crossing* (1994), and C*ities of the Plain* (19

Animal CompanionDesertLiterary FictionSurvival Story
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Red Dog

Louis de Bernieres · 128 pages

This is a duplicate. Please update your lists. See https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1912222W.

DesertAnimal CompanionLiterary FictionMale Lead
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The Black Stallion Returns

Walter Farley · 203 pages

When his rightful owner repossesses the Black, eighteen-year-old Alec travels across the deserts of Arabia to find the great stallion and helps resolve a tribal feud.

DesertAnimal CompanionMale Lead
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Voss

Patrick White · 448 pages

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Land of Black Gold

Herge · 62 pages

Animal CompanionDesertMale Lead
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Life of Pi

Yann Martel · 336 pages

After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan… and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary works of fiction in recent years.

Animal CompanionLiterary FictionLyrical ProseMale Lead
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Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind

Suzanne Fisher Staples · 240 pages

When eleven-year old Shabanu, the daughter of a nomad in the Cholistan Desert of present-day Pakistan, is pledged in marriage to an older man whose money will bring prestige to the family, she must either accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences of defying her father's wishes.

DesertAnimal CompanionCultural Identity
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The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

David Wroblewski · 566 pages

A tale reminiscent of "Hamlet" that also celebrates the alliance between humans and dogs follows speech-disabled Wisconsin youth Edgar, who bonds with three yearling canines and struggles to prove that his sinister uncle is responsible for his father's death.

Animal CompanionLiterary FictionLyrical ProseSurvival Story
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Quarantine

Jim Crace · 242 pages

A re-imagining of the forty days Christ spent in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. Judea, about two thousand years ago: There were five of them - not in a group, but strung out along the road where earlier that morning the caravan of uncles had passed by. Three men, a woman, and, too far behind for anyone to guess its gender, a fifth. And this fifth was barefoot, and without a staff. No

DesertLiterary FictionLyrical ProseMale Lead
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The Sheltering Sky

Paul Bowles · 318 pages

'The Sheltering Sky is a book about people on the edge of an alien space; somewhere where, curiously, they are never alone' Michael Hoffman. Port and Kit Moresbury, a sophisticated American couple, are finding it more than a little difficult to live with each other. Endeavouring to escape this predicament, they set off for North Africa intending to travel through Algeria - uncertain of exactly

DesertLiterary FictionLyrical ProseMale Lead
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The Young Black Stallion

Walter Farley, Steven Farley · 160 pages

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House Made of Dawn

N. Scott Momaday · 198 pages

This widely acclaimed novel tells the story of a young American Indian struggling to reconcile the traditional ways of his people with the demands of the twentieth century. Abel was raised to heed the voices of the land, the changes of the seasons, and the lessons taught by peyote. But once he returned from a foreign war and became exposed to the temptations of the wider world, Abel became a man l

DesertLiterary FictionLyrical ProseMale Lead
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Fire & Flood

Victoria Scott · 320 pages

Animal CompanionDesertSurvival Story
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The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho · 192 pages

Combining magic, mysticism, wisdom and wonder into an inspiring tale of self-discovery, The Alchemist has become a modern classic, selling millions of copies around the world and transforming the lives of countless readers across generations. Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His ques

DesertLiterary FictionLyrical ProseMale Lead
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Walkabout

James Vance Marshall · 124 pages

Mary and her young brother Peter are the only survivors of an aircrash in the middle of the Australian desert. Facing death from exhaustion and starvation, they meet an aboriginal boy who helps them to survive, and guides them along their long journey. But a terrible misunderstanding results in a tragedy that neither Mary nor Peter will ever forget...

DesertLiterary FictionCultural IdentitySurvival Story
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The Day Of Creation

J.G. Ballard · 254 pages

In parched Port-la-Nouvelle in Central Africa, Dr Mallory watches his clinic fail and dreams of discovering a third Nile to make the Sahara bloom. During his search for water, an ancient tree stump is uprooted by a bulldozer and water wells up, spreading until it becomes an enormous river. With the once arid land now abounding in birds and beasts, the obsessed Mallory forges upriver, clashing with

DesertLiterary FictionLyrical ProseMale Lead
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Wolf Totem

Jiang Rong · 533 pages

Chen Zhen volunteers to live in a remote settlement on the border of Inner and Outer Mongolia. There, he discovers life of apparent idyllic simplicity based on an eternal struggle between the wolves and the humans in their fight to survive. Chen learns about the spiritual relationship which exists between these adversaries.

Animal CompanionLiterary FictionMale LeadCultural Identity
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The Dovekeepers

Alice Hoffman · 512 pages

A tale inspired by the tragic first-century massacre of hundreds of Jewish people at Masada presents the stories of a hated daughter, a baker's wife, a girl disguised as a warrior, and a medicine woman who keep doves and secrets while Roman soldiers draw near.

DesertLiterary FictionLyrical ProseSurvival Story
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The Wives of Los Alamos

TaraShea Nesbit · 233 pages

"Their average age was twenty-five. They came from Berkeley, Cambridge, Paris, London, Chicago--and arrived in New Mexico ready for adventure, or at least resigned to it. But hope quickly turned to hardship as they were forced to adapt to a rugged military town where everything was a secret, including what their husbands were doing at the lab. They lived in barely finished houses with P.O. box add

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Caravans

James A. Michener · 386 pages

In the years immediately following World War II, a young American woman, married and living in Afghanistan against her parents' wishes, suddenly and mysteriously disappears. Michener's magnificent novel combines historical fact with a gripping adventure of romance, danger, and intrigue as it follows the story of the military man who is assigned the task of finding and returning the young woman to

DesertLiterary FictionMale LeadCultural Identity
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Ceremony

Leslie Marmon Silko · 262 pages

"This story, set on an Indian reservation just after World War II, concerns the return home of a war-weary Navaho young man. Tayo, a young Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and the horrors of captivity have almost eroded his will to survive. His return to the Laguna Pueblo reservation only increases his feeling of estrangement and alienation. While other ret

DesertLiterary FictionLyrical ProseMale Lead
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Goat Days

Benyamin · 255 pages

"Najeeb's dearest wish is to work in the Gulf and earn enough money to send back home. He achieves his dream only to be propelled by a series of incidents, grim and absurd, into a slave-like existence herding goats in the middle of the Saudi desert. Memories of the lush, verdant landscape of his village and his loving family haunt Najeeb, whose only solace is the companionship of goats. In the end

DesertLiterary FictionMale LeadSurvival Story
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Rise and Fall

Eliot Schrefer · 187 pages

Deep in the desert there sits a beautiful oasis, ruled by a monarch unlike any other in Erdas. His name is Cabaro, the Great Lion, and he reigns over a kingdom of animals, jealously guarding his golden talisman. No human has ever set foot in the Great Beast’s territory. The journey to his oasis is impossible. As a team, Conor, Abeke, Meilin, and Rollan have achieved the impossible before. But n

DesertAnimal Companion
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The Elephant Keeper

Christopher Nicholson · 277 pages

"I asked the sailor what an Elephant looked like; he replied that it was like nothing on earth."England, 1766: After a long voyage from the East Indies, a ship docks in Bristol, England, and rumor quickly spreads about its unusual cargo—some say a mermaid is on board. A crowd forms, hoping to catch a glimpse of the magical creature. One crate after another is unpacked: a zebra, a leopard, and a ba

Animal CompanionLiterary FictionLyrical ProseMale Lead

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