The Nomad, The : The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt ([New ed.])

Born to Russian emigres and brought up in an atmosphere of intellectual and aristocratic anachism, in her short life Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) came to be known as the ultimate enigma and a representative of everything that seemed dangerous in 19th century society.

She was a transvestite and sensualist, an experienced drug-taker and a transgressor of boundaries: a European reborn as a desert Arab and devout Muslim, a woman who reinvented herself as a man, wandering the Sahara on horseback. A profoundly lonely individual for all her numerous sexual adventures, she roused controversy and and was loved and hated in equal measure; a mysterious attempt was made on her life and even her eventual death was ambiguous: she died from drowning in the desert at the age of 27. "La bonne nomade", Isabelle's diaries offer an account of her strange and passionate nomadic lifestyle; a personal record of her torments, her search for inspiration as a writer, and her spirituality.