The Desert and the Drum is the first novel ever to be translated into English from Mauritania. It won the Ahmadou-Kourouma Prize in 2016.Everything changes for Rayhana when foreigners with strange machines arrive to mine for metal near her Bedouin camp. One of them is the enigmatic Yahya. Rayhana's association with him leads to her abandoning all she knows and fleeing alone to the city. When her tribe discover she's stolen their sacred drum they pursue her to exact their revenge. Though Rayhana has her own missing person to seek.The Desert and the Drum tells of Rayhana's rift with her family, the disturbing characters she encounters in the metropolis, her attempts to separate friend from foe and to find a place for herself amidst the contradictions of contemporary Mauritania.

Mbarek Ould Beyrouk (Beyrouk) was born in Atar, Mauritania, in 1957. A journalist, he founded the country's first ever independent newspaper, Mauritanie Demain, in 1988, and is a recognised champion of free speech. He was honoured for his media work in 2006 through an appointment to the Higher Authority for the Printed and Audiovisual Press in Mauritania, and he is currently an advisor to the President of the Republic.He has written four books, including three novels: Et le ciel a oublié de pleuvoir (2006); Le Griot de l'émir, (2013) and The Desert and The Drum (Le Tambour des larmes, 2015).