The Geography of Desire: A Memoir of West Africa

It's 1978, and twenty-four-year-old Linda Gambill is stuck with a dead-end job, a nightly marijuana habit, and a troubled relationship with a former professor. Desperate to explore the world and find her place in it, she makes good on a long-held dream. She joins the Peace Corps. A year later, she arrives in Medina, a devout Muslim village in The Gambia, West Africa. She's tasked with teaching health and nutrition to the village women, but they have no confidence in a young white woman trying to change their ways. Instead of finding a sense of belonging, Linda becomes so depressed she can barely leave her hut. When tragedy strikes, her perspective shifts from self-absorption to service. She learns the local language, forges friendships, and begins to make her mark on the village, all the while falling in love with two very different men. But it is only when a coup breaks out that the course of her life becomes clear. Richly sensual and poignant, The Geography of Desire is the story of one woman's transformative journey amidst the challenges and beauty of West Africa, showing how the people we set out to change, in the end, change us.

Author: Linda Gambill
Publisher: Apprentice House
Published: 06/16/2026
Pages: 386
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.98lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.86d
ISBN: 9781627206334


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/0001

About the Author
Gambill, Linda: - Linda Gambill has been a therapist at a state psychiatric hospital, a Peace Corps volunteer, a nationally exhibited photographer, and a teacher of English as a Second Language. Her writing has appeared in Persimmon Tree and Parhelion. A Hambidge fellow, she lives in Tennessee with her husband and their talkative rescue cat.