At the close of the nineteenth century in Sudan, freed slave Bakhit is let out of prison with the overthrow of the Mahdist state. On the brink of death, the memory of his beloved Theodora is all that has sustained him through seven years of grim incarceration--that and his vow to avenge her killing. Set against a backdrop of war, religious fervor, and the massive social and political upheavals of the time, The Longing of the Dervish is a love story in the most unlikely of circumstances.