This short novella is the story of a love affair. A young man goes up to Edinburgh University. Lonely, he writes letters to his mother and to his best friend Paul. He tells them about the city, about the people he has met, the books he has read. Then one day he meets a girl, Kate. Almost from that moment he is lost. Intoxicated, agonized, his love for Kate becomes all consuming, obsessive. He believes she loves him too, but she is already committed to another, and his focus changes to an intense exploration of what love really means.Astonishing in its intensity and the beauty of its language, The Cloud of Dust has all the makings of a cult bestseller