The story of how Michael Asher and Mariantoinetta Peru succeeded in crossing the 4500 miles of the Sahara from west to east with camels and a series of guides in 1986, a feat no other Westerner had accomplished. An added complication was that they had been married only five days before and the desert world exposed the flaws in their relationship. Despite this, their committment bound them together and the book reveals the courage and determination with which they tackled one of the world's greatest deserts, as well as the picture of an ancient world threatened by Western culture and ravaged by famine and drought. Michael Asher is also author of In Search of the Forty Days Road and A Desert Dies, both set in the Sudan.