Kamyonistan has finally arrived. The truck stop in the desert near Damascus has witnessed its first birth a surprise to all concerned and is therefore a community. It s also a place in our heads as one truck driver, Bingo, says, as well as being an oasis of rest and entertainment for travellers from all corners of the world and a target for Israeli missiles. Suddenly, Kamyonistan is threatened. The honest drivers move on and the gangs move in. A British Muslim stows away to commit an act of terrorism in Amsterdam. An English truck driver finds a very unpleasant piece of dead cargo in the back...

At one level, Robert Hackford's immensely readable novel is about the tough world of intercontinental truck drivers, treacherous mountain passes, desert storms and TIR truck stops in the Middle East, focussing on the 'Kamyonistan' community near Damascus in Syria. At another level, it's a tender, discreetly told story of two teenage boys, Ro and Nuri, one English, one Arab, who find themselves in a harsh moral environment tainted by fundamentalism. They look to each other for comfort, and discover firdaus - paradise. Few authors touch on such sensitive issues as these, and Kamyonistan is...

Kamyonistan is not just a place...
Its a magical oasis weve constructed in our minds.

Bingo is right. The truck stop near Damascus is an oasis - a paradise, even - currently recovering from the harsh reality of an Israeli missile attack. For the English teenager Ro and his Egyptian-born friend Nuri, it represents security, better employment prospects and a tolerance of their unusual lifestyle.

The arrival of a majestic camel and her baby offspring presents a different kind of challenge. When unmarked containers also arrive at Kamyonistan in the depths of a severe winter, and Ro sees rifles...

As Ro and Nuri pursue their quest for an Islamic booklet that supports ijtihad, or a revision of strict Muslim laws and codes of conduct, we follow them to Cairo, Aswan, Aqaba, Petra, and finally back to Kamyonistan near Damascus. This is the truck stop community that is their true home - their jannat al-ardh or earthly paradise. But the relationship between Ro, the English teenager, and his young Arab friend, Nuri, is not unnoticed by a fundamentalist spy. Having shaken off the two-faced Omar, Ro comes face to face with twin tragedies, first when Kamyonistan is rocked by an earth tremor, and...

'Kamyonistan is not just a place... It's a magical oasis we've constructed in our minds.' In the desert near Damascus, Kamyonistan is a truck stop where trade routes, cultures and travellers connect and collide. From this outpost arises a nascent community, which faces threats from fundamentalism, Israeli missiles, gunrunning and even an earthquake. And yet, for its inhabitants, Kamyonistan becomes an earthly paradise - a place that needs to be protected, where identities can be carved and, most importantly, a place to call home. This quartet edition contains all four novels of Robert...