An American writer and composer who lived in Morocco for most of his life, Paul Bowles was a peripheral member of the post-World War II counter-cultural group of writers known as the Beat generation. The Sheltering Sky (1949), his first novel, is his best-known work, although he wrote other novels, numerous short stories, and works of nonfiction, most notably travel narratives. He also translated several works by Moroccan writers. The Sheltering Sky was adapted into a movie starring Debra Winger and John Malkovich; it was released in 1990 to mixed reviews. In contrast, the book received positive reviews for its depiction of existential despair and the vast, unknowable spaces of the desert terrain of North Africa. In recent years, however, postcolonial scholars have critiqued Bowles’s essentializing narratives while still appreciating the psychological complexity of his main characters.

All quotations in this guide come from the 1990 First Vintage International Edition. Please note: The study guide includes references to rape, violence, and forced captivity of a female character.

Plot Summary

The book opens as Porter Moresby awakens from a deep slumber. The place and time are indefinite; he only becomes aware of his wife’s footsteps in the next room after a moment and notes the room’s stale air. It is not until the second chapter that the reader discovers that the married couple is traveling throughout North Africa with another American companion, Tunner. It is shortly after World War II, and nobody (civilians, that is) has been able to cross the Atlantic since 1939 at the onset of unrest in Europe. Port, in particular, is eager to travel more deeply into the interior of Africa, into the Sahara Desert. His wife, Kit, wants only to do and be what her husband desires—though she also possesses her own stubborn perspectives and crippling fears. The younger Tunner travels with them because he admires their sophistication or wants a bit of adventure—though he also harbors an attraction to Kit. They are all searching for a clearer sense of self and purpose.

In Book 1, “Tea in the Sahara,” the three Americans discuss their next destination. They are in an unnamed town in North Africa, and Port wishes to travel further inland. Tunner’s presence causes some tension between Port and Kit, as Kit is aware that Tunner’s intentions are not wholly innocent while Port seems not to notice. For his part, Port is consumed with delving into the mystery of existence and finding purpose and meaning; he gets lost in his thoughts often and seems to meander throughout the book on vague whims or momentary urges. He goes out for a walk after some cross words with Kit regarding Tunner and notes the “barren mountains” and “vast flat sebkha [plain]” (17). As a breeze kicks up, Port “sniffed at the fragments of mystery in it, and again he felt an unaccustomed exaltation” (17). Port likes to travel because it takes him away from the certainties of his privileged life into something he believes to be more mysterious, more profound, and more exciting. He comes across a native man, Smail, who takes him to a brothel where he has sex with a native prostitute. When she tries to steal his money, he returns home, disheveled and exhausted. Kit tries to hide his absence from Tunner, who arrives in the morning to take her to the market. Port sleeps all day, and Kit and Port argue over Tunner again at dinner together.

After dinner, Kit returns to her room while Port enjoys a drink at the hotel bar. He meets Eric Lyle, traveling with his mother, Mrs. Lyle. They appear to be British, though Eric will claim to be Australian. Eric informs Port that the two will be traveling to Boussif soon, and Port thinks he and Kit will be invited to go with them. Sure enough, the following day, Eric invites the couple to come along in their Mercedes—but, unfortunately, there is not enough room for Tunner. Kit refuses to leave Tunner on the train alone, so while Port takes Eric up on his offer, Kit and Tunner take the train. Tunner brings half a dozen bottles of champagne to ease the anxiety of the trip, and Kit gets intoxicated. She wanders about the train, almost getting lost and jostled by the natives. In her fear and drunkenness, she succumbs to Tunner’s overtures, and they have sex. Kit does not tell Port, and they continue to discuss philosophical ideas about existence, failing to understand each other’s points of view.

The three then travel to Ain Krorfa, where the Lyles will once again catch up with them. Port dissembles with Tunner to get him to go with the Lyles to Messad—he has decided he wants to be alone with Kit, to try to reconnect with her—while they will go to Bou Noura. Once Tunner is gone, however, Port feels uncertain about how to proceed with Kit. He goes into town with the hotel’s proprietor, Mohammed, who takes him to another brothel. He is mesmerized by a blind woman dancing for customers but is told she is another man’s property. He is so devastated that he thinks “he had lost love itself” (144). He returns to the hotel and demands tea be made to accompany his whiskey, paying far too much for it. Mohammed laughs and tells Port that he is just like the other Westerners, who pretend to be innocent and yet are not. He then tells Port that he interrupted Eric and Mrs. Lyle while they were having sex. Port goes quickly to bed.

Book 2, “The Earth’s Sharp Edge,” opens with Lieutenant d’Armagnac, “commander of the military post of Bou Noura” (151), thinking about his latest troubles: An American has lost his passport and accused an esteemed local of stealing it. To preserve friendly relationships with the local population, he must get the American—it is Port, of course—to retract his accusation. Port does so grudgingly, then admits to Kit that he knows that Eric Lyle is, in fact, the culprit. He is unhappy with Bou Noura and wants to go even further into the desert, to El Ga’a. Unfortunately, transportation is intermittent and difficult. However, when he is informed that his passport was discovered in Messad and that Tunner will be bringing it to him, he panics and decides that he and Kit will leave immediately, bribing his way onto a bus that very night. He has also taken ill, as becomes increasingly apparent, and suffers during the long and arduous journey.

Once the two reach El Ga’a, there is no refuge to be found: There has been an outbreak of meningitis, and the hotel will not take them in. With the help of a young Arab man, Kit arranges to hitch a ride on a produce truck traveling to Sba. The commander there gives Port the only room at the hospital and provides medication for Kit to administer at regular intervals. It appears that Port has typhoid but will likely survive with medication. Kit’s mental state begins to unravel as she grasps the seriousness of his illness: “She raised her head and looked up at him with tenderness and terror” (226). Eventually, she leaves him alone in the room to look out at the town from the roof. She sees an approaching vehicle and walks down to the market to greet it. Tunner has finally tracked them down, and she again takes solace in his comforting presence: “She saw nothing ahead of her but Tunner’s will awaiting her signal to take command” (241). They stay out late, talking amid the dunes when he reminds her of their liaison. She becomes agitated, sobbing that she loves Port, but when she returns to the room, he is dead.

She does not tell anyone and dodges Tunner. She packs up her belongings, along with the rest of Port’s money, and walks out of town. She stops at a garden, takes off her clothes, and immerses herself in a pond before finding shelter underneath a tree where she will sleep for the night. This is the last the reader sees of Kit until Book 3.

The aftermath of Port’s death and Kit’s disappearance weighs heavily on Tunner. He decides he hates the desert: “In an obscure fashion he felt that it had deprived him of his friends” (263). He is determined to find Kit, knowing full well the scandal in which he will be embroiled if he does not bring her back. In the final scene of Book 2, Tunner returns to his room to find Eric Lyle—the Lyles have once again caught up with the American travelers—rifling through his belongings. He punches him twice and then throws him out of his room. When he wakes up in the morning, the Lyles are already gone.

In Book 3, “The Sky,” the perspective remains with Kit, as the reader discovers what has happened to her in the interim. She accepted a ride from a traveling caravan, during which the two men in charge take turns raping her each afternoon. The younger of the two, Belqassim, decides that he will disguise her as an Arab boy and keep her in his house. She is imprisoned there, not knowing where she is, but welcoming Belqassim’s visits when they engage in vigorous intercourse. Eventually, though, his wives discover the truth about Kit, and—after the women viciously attack her—Belqassim marries her in the native fashion. He visits less frequently, and Kit becomes distraught then afraid; she believes the wives, who resent her presence, are poisoning her. She convinces them to help her escape, bribing them with jewelry, and she flees Belqassim’s compound.

However, the next morning, she is hungry, so she returns to town and tries to buy buttermilk from a vendor. Her Algerian francs are worthless where she is, and the intervention of a native, Amar, saves her from further trouble there. She has sex with him in return for her safety, but he takes her money and turns her in at the local consulate. She is to be returned to the port city of Oran, where she will recuperate before being transported back to New York. She is also informed that Tunner has been notified of her return and is likely already waiting for her at the hotel. Her escort, Miss Ferry, is shocked and confused by the look on Kit’s face, “so strange and white” (332) in her sheer distress.