Yusuf Carrim has made it in New York. His tech-savvy coverage of the Arab Spring saw his journalism career skyrocket. But when his wealthy father asks him to help look for Sam, a missing family friend, he must return to South Africa.

Yusuf ’s search takes him to places he could never have imagined. Enlisting the help of an eccentric professor and Sam’s exotic uncle, Yusuf discovers facts that undermine a lifetime’s assumptions about his own identity – and prompt him to step up the search for Sam before it is too late.

From the suburbs of Johannesburg to the streets of Bulawayo, from Dubai air­port to an immigrant facility on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, Yusuf ’s quest to find Sam turns into an inward journey of his own.

The Thunder That Roars is international journalist Imran Garda’s cosmopolitan, fast-paced debut.