A radical new account of the Sahara - from pre-history to the present day

'A fascinating travelogue and history of the world's largest hot desert ... fresh, original and energising' THE TIMES In this sweeping account, Judith Scheele reveals the rich history and complex reality of the world's largest hot desert. Drawing on decades of research, and years spent living in the region, Scheele leads us from the ancient Roman Empire through the bloody colonial era to the geopolitics of the present - and the race for resources that will define the future. The Sahara covers parts of eleven countries, and Scheele follows in the footsteps and tyre-tracks of the many people who cross the desert, taking us into the homes, mosques, palm groves and battlefields where history is written, spoken and remade. The result is a masterful portrait of the Sahara. Encompassing the geology, religions, peoples and politics that shape and fracture the region, Shifting Sands tells the immersive story of a place whose future holds implications for us all.

"Engrossing, enlightening, original ... brilliant" - The Times

"A detailed, often gritty, picture of a fragile world ... a clearsighted study of life on the edge" - Wall Street Journal

"Meticulously investigated, revealing the realities of the Earth's largest desert" - Geographical

"Scheele presents a detailed, often gritty, picture of a fragile world. Her travels trace the web of exchanges, linguistic and material, that crisscross a harsh, vast and sometimes impassable terrain ... Instead of "mental maps of vertical and historically immutable trade routes," Scheele finds a pattern of pathways that, like the grazing routes of the pastoralists' livestock, shifts with changes in climate, economics and politics ... this is a clearsighted and unsentimental study of life on the edge." - Wall Street Journal

"A fascinating travelogue and history of the world's largest hot desert ... Fresh, original and energising" - The Times

"Scheele describes adaptation to the desert environment well... Her aim is to challenge 'two millennia' of preconceptions about 'the Sahara, its people, its history, even its geography'" - London Review of Books

"In Shifting Sands, Scheele sets out to dispel the many fantasies about the Sahara and give a more accurate picture of a much-misunderstood region. Throughout this engaging study, she favours the local detail over the remote, bird's-eye view, the Saharan experience over the outside perspective... fascinating... much of the two decades' worth of admirable research on which it is based would simply not be possible today" - TLS

"Scheele unveils [a] meticulously investigated narrative, to reveal the realities of the Earth's largest desert. She questions the standard bird's-eye view and zooms in to examine the details ... [and] takes the reader from the ancient Roman Empire to modern African countries and the scenes of contemporary regional battles, exposing fascinating truths about desert life along the journey" - Geographical

"A gritty, deeply engaged, history of the fusion of peoples whose homeland is the Sahara. This is a fascinating and intimate perspective of the region from the ground-up: complete with plastic sandals, smugglers, migrants, border boom towns upheld by the Sahara's enduring love affair with both camel and truck" - In Search of Ancient North Africa

"Scheele presents an invigorating alternate vision of the Sahara as a place where social life is deeply intertwined with ecology but which is just as varied and complex as anywhere. It's an immersive view of a too often oversimplified region" - Publishers Weekly

"Wide sweeping and remorselessly unromantic, Scheele's intention is to bring people into the history of the Sahara, its inhabitants as well as its natural features and also the relationship between the two ... None of the groups studied here are static. On the contrary, many of them - nomads, herders, conquering soldiers, smugglers, migrants - are on the move ... Most of all, this is a work that emphasises change over time" - Literary Review

"Praise for Smugglers and Saints of the Sahara: 'An irresistible read ... something particular and intensely human'" - The Journal of North African Studies

"An academic page-turner ... brilliantly written and thrilling to read" - Africa