He is a European reporter, she is a freedom fighter in northern Africa. She has killed and he has seen it. This is what divides the lovers and also what binds them together. As Kopperud drives his novel forward through a series of arguments, journeys and stories, sometimes told by the man, sometimes by the woman, and sometimes by a shadowy third figure, the reader is caught up in a narrative that explores our collective myths and dreams and the search for peace. Longing is an extraordinarily ambitious novel that is rooted in the real world of love and conflict but moves inexorably towards the border where reality merges into dream.