A psychological thriller blurring the line between literary fantasy and real-life tragedy, written by one of the most influential authors in the Middle East. A Sudanese writer begins to suspect that one of his most idiosyncratic characters from a recent novel resembles — in an uncanny and terrifying way — a real person he has never met. Since he condemned this character to an untimely death in the novel, should he attempt to save this real man from a similar fate? Elsir takes his readers on a chilling journey through the unsettled mind of an author who loses control over his own creations and sense of reality. Set in both sides of Khartoum — the bustling capital city and the neglected, poverty stricken underbelly — this is a novel of unreliable narrators, of insane asylums and of the (dubious?) relationship between imagination and reality