Quarantine

Jim Crace

Quarantine is about these five people who go to the desert to meditate for various reasons. And they meet an unscrupulous trader by the name of Musa and his wife. It's somewhat based on the Bible, I think and one of these five hermits is named Jesus. I kinda knew that the story had certain biblical references but don't know enough to catch most of them. Leaving all that aside, it is possible to read this as a story, one that is filled with lovely images of the desert landscape and very apt descriptions of the characters. The plot is driven by the interactions between the characters, especially the interactions between Musa and the other hermits. The way I describe the story seems to make it seem like a bland plot. But it's so well-written that it's a joy just to sit and read it without looking for anything more than it's offering. It's been a number of months since I read it, but I still seem to remember some scenes very vividly so it must have made a pretty good impression. I didn't manage to think of it as anything more than a very good story but I suppose that is good enough anyway. At least, I was impressed enough to tell myself to seek out other books by him.