Rose has died following an endless struggle – a struggle against her own body falling apart, a struggle against the nightmares seeping into her shattered mind, a struggle against the rising water eroding the shoreline of Lomé, a town she never left though her life was attuned to the rhythm of the seasons in distant America. Now Sambo, her nephew, must undertake a final ritual and honour her last request: to bury her remains – nothing more than hair and fingernails – in the city that never left her dreams, New Orleans, Louisiana.

To accomplish this impossible mission, Sambo must borrow a childhood friend’s identity. His journey – a long coach ride through the United States – begins in Canada, where his friend lives. In a tiny bus station in Hull, he meets Louise, who also dreams of escape and faraway places. Gradually, as they wait for an increasingly late bus to arrive, their worlds become acquainted and begin to intertwine. With Louise at his side, Sambo begins what is to be Rose’s last journey.

After Les Pieds sales, finalist for the 2009 prix Goncourt, Edem Awumey returns with a third novel of dazzling lyrical power. A story of human beings on the move from Africa to America, from dusty South to chilly North, Rose déluge celebrates our shared human heritage in a world of frightening fragility.