Dance Along a Deserted Road

Author(s): Roger Walsom

Location(s): Morocco

Genre(s): Psychological Thriller, Coming of Age

Era(s): 1960s and 1970s

Fiona’s first love abruptly broke her heart; and, meeting her in Morocco a decade later, he pretends they’ve never met. Why?

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A savvy London teenager in the mid-1960s, Fiona wants to enjoy the incoming cultural freedoms. However, she has to cope with strict parents, her father’s homosexual activities (then illegal) and continually being pressurised to excel in everything.

When a fateful party results in a friend becoming pregnant, she feels compelled to assist in an illegal abortion, ultimately leading to the friend’s suicide. At the same party, Fiona meets her nemesis: a dangerous admirer willing to resort to violence when she rejects him.

And then there is John: a new boy at school whom she initially dislikes, but eventually comes to love – until he moves away and inexplicably breaks off all contact. Utterly bereft, she leaves school physically and emotionally scarred.

A decade later, Fiona and her jealous fiancé join a group travelling overland to the Sahara; but – as Fiona secretly knows – John is the group’s leader. Despite her engagement, she is still desperate to discover why he deserted her, causing her breakdown; but he acts like they’ve never met. This becomes even more painful when both he and her fiancé seem drawn to her attractive rival.

During an increasingly nightmare journey, Fiona must relive her schoolgirl trauma in what seems an alien environment. Among a group with starkly different backgrounds and beliefs, she finds her liberal attitudes challenged while being forced to recognise her own prejudices. Yet, despite fraying tempers, they have to endure each other’s company in a stifling van amid the sweltering Moroccan landscape.

As her fiancé becomes more abusive, Fiona’s increasing isolation prompts her to befriend Alan, the group’s troublemaker, adding to tensions. And discovering why John rejected her at school is devastating: betrayal – apparently by her best friend – and a homosexual schoolboy dalliance.

Her relationship with John is eventually rekindled; and, to Fiona’s delight, they plan their future together. But her fiancé – initially suspecting Alan – reacts violently, forcing their van over a cliff, killing John and maiming Fiona.

With her fiancé charged with murder, she must face her best friend’s betrayal and the discovery that John had lived in Morocco as a gay man.

However, Fiona is relieved to find later that a school rival betrayed her, not her best friend; and, having learnt in Morocco how little we can control the way we are, she comes to realise that human failings deserve empathy more than blame.

Meanwhile, her future brightens when she begins a relationship with the trip’s disabled hero who saved her life.

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