cover image Oasis

Oasis

Laureen Vonnegut, . . Counterpoint, $24 (201pp) ISBN 978-1-58243-360-8

An impoverished Russian sold into sexual slavery at 15, Lili, now 22, finds herself at the mercy of a band of Sahara oasis dwellers after abandoning her Moroccan "husband," who dragged her into the desert on a murky business deal and was felled by a snakebite. Lili fears she will be hunted down and jailed because she refused to drive him to a hospital. "The Arab," as she refers to him, repeatedly raped her, yet he also sprang for an education and fancy clothes. Lili desperately tries to determine if her newfound desert companions are foes or friends: is a Spaniard really searching for a silver mine, and who is the mute "lunatic" who lives in the bushes and tends the camels? Does the Berber sell camels or land mines, are his two black-robed wives trying to poison each other or Lili, and is an Algerian runaway wife some kind of insurrectionist spy? The premise that Vonnegut (cousin of author Kurt) tenders in this debut is gripping, and her Sahara comes to life vividly. But Lili's opacity frustrates, and her confusion comes at the expense of an underdeveloped plot. Readers not versed in the region's political conflicts will find the motivations difficult to track. (Oct.)