Desire
Novel by Lindsay Ahl

Booklist:
"Freelance photographer and film producer Ahl's novel is nothing less than a tour de force. She has the perfect grasp of how to explore the "outer limits" as a writer while maintaining a well-paced cohesive narrative and demonstrating a strong lyrical sensibility. ... Ahl's first novel is provocative and impressive."

San Francisco Chronicle:
“A very talented writer.”

Publishers Weekly:
"Using Kenya, New York City, New Mexico and her narrator's compex inner landscapes as backdrops, Ahl combines rich sensory and geographical descriptions with a tale of psychological and emotional displacement."

The Minneapolis Observer:
"Perhaps it is the alchemy of author Lindsay Ahl's work as a film producer, creative writing teacher and photographer that allowed her to create as fluid and dreamlinke a debut novel as Desire. Her main character, 25-year-old Elena, floats effortlessly among Albuquerque back alleys, Bob Dylan lyrics, childhood memories, rutted African roads, and thundering elephant herds."

Kirkus Reviews:
"Ahl writes with intensity...and her evocation of Kenya is impressionistic and moving."

Bookslut.com:
“Think Gorillas in the Mist, but with elephants. …Ahl utilizes the concept of a ‘soundtrack’ for her book deftly, and does an articulate job of describing Africa and its dangerous beauty.”

Library Journal:
"...managing to be at once hard-edged and ethereal, with a hazy, dreamlike tone..."

Barry Levinson:
"This story brings us closer to the magic and mystery of memory and its hold on us."

Jamie Callan:
"Desire is a lyrical, funny and poignant road trip. If Kerouac were a sexy waif of a girl, this is the book he would write."

Susann Cokal:
"A dense, dreamlike novel. You wake with a sense that your own world has changed because of this foray through the wilds of Africa, New Mexico, and family life."

Abby Frucht:
"No description of this novel will do its quiet vision justice. Lindsay Ahl's forthright lyricism creates a landscape as mysterious as it is persuasive, as sturdy as it is ethereal."

Fanny Howe:
"The new American innocence is represented in these pages with utter clarity. Self-inventing, restless, and passionate."

Mark Jay Mirsky:
"Desire catches the voice of a generation, avid for life and soured on the mistakes and ineptitude of parents who failed to save an endangered world. This novel is a zany roadtrip of genius."

Ernesto Quiñonez:
"Desire contains a lusty cinematic intensity, conveying an uneasy tale of sexual liberties and repression as well as the lies we tell our lovers."

Frederic Tuten:
"Political, surreal and unnervingly beautiful, Desire is a novel that breathes life into the reader."