The Book of Strangers
by Ian Dallas
It’s set in the future, in an information-based society, where even students are monitored, and their access to information is restricted according to what is deemed necessary for their requirements. But then the main character in the book decides to leave. He has this meeting with a nomad, and the nomad says, ‘I’m leaving tomorrow at dawn if you want to come with me.’ And they’re going out into the desert, beyond this bubble of so-called civilisation, into a completely different world, which this society would define as backward and primitive, but, in fact, amongst whose people are people of great wisdom and knowledge.