In this brilliantly clever fictionalised memoir, award-winning author Jamal Mahjoub interrogates how the first generation of Northern Sudanese citizens undertook the momentous task of creating a newly independent nation.Exiled in a dilapidated hotel in South-West France, Sharif looks back on his rich and eventful life to date. Memories of a bohemian existence in England and France ? a time of love affairs and excess ? clash with more recent memories of navigating the volatile and unprecedented political situation in North Africa.With wry wit, Sharif recalls the wealth of extraordinary characters who have passed through his life and tries to make sense of an existence lived in disarray.