Harun Uld el-Assas

Harun is the main character and narrator of the novel. He is the younger brother of Musa and was seven when his brother was killed. Since the death of his brother, Harun felt as if his mother expected him to surrender himself and become a form of Musa reincarnated for her. Harun never married, never had friendships and felt as if he were sent to school to learn to read only so he could read the newspaper articles that his mother had kept about his brother’s death. Harun does not believe in God. In fact, he believes God abandoned humanity during a Friday day of rest.

As an old man, Harun narrates to a graduate student the story of Musa’s death as he knows it. Because he was so young when his brother died, Harun really does not know that much about what happened...