In The Crooked Merchant of Khartoum by Abdullahi El-Tom, we see a character going through, literally, a series of visions as he grows to embrace one challenge after another, some which test his ability to understand how he fits in as he becomes a kind of Dostoevskian Idiot who wants to meet the reality of others and the challenges that his own peculiar circumstances force upon him. Khareef Matar-Wadi, in the sweltering heat of Khartoum, must uncover who he is amidst the prejudicial regionalism, religious sectarianism and classism of Sudanese society