Jeanphi, a young man from the fictional West African city Ouabany, has one obsession that will determine the fate of his life – migration. He scrapes together money to take the illegal route across the Sahara, making it as far as Morocco before being repatriated. Increasingly desperate, Jeanphi meets an elegant French widower who for his part is despairing at the insurmountable bureaucratic hurdles for his charitable endeavour in Jeanphi's country. A window opens to opportunity – but it will also bring tragedy.

Burkinabé author Monique Ilboudo's novel offers a compelling and complex portrait of migration, one of the defining global concerns of the twenty-first century, and a sharp critique of both the NGO-isation of African countries and the currents of shame that divide communities and families. Yarri Kamara has rendered Ilboudo's text in an idiom that conveys the sharp humour, lucid descriptions and urgency of the original.

Monique Ilboudo is a Burkinabe writer, activist and academic whose work focuses on the promotion of women's rights and citizenship. She is a regular newspaper contributor, known in particular for her column Féminin pluriel (1992-1995) which addressed the situation of women in her country. Her first novel, Le Mal de Peau (1992) won a national prize in Burkina Faso. She has also held political office as both a minister and ambassador.