The Swimmer in the Desert Everyone and everthing has at some point desired something to badly, it was unbearble. …. In the short story, The Swimmer in the Desert, the author Alex Preston does exactely this. In this story, desire plays one of the bigger roles. For the maincharacter, all he The story takes place in the middle of a warzone in Afghanistan, with scalding hot sand and unbearable heat: “He’d thought, before getting here, that it would be cold at night. But it is never cold in the desert. Even the night air feels as if it has been breathed a million times, as if some desert djinn is panting stale air straight into his lungs” (page 1, line 21-23). The environment is fearly hot, harsh and unpleasant. The main character is obviousy not used to the hot temperature, and still hasn’t gotten used to the conditions out there. Besides the heat, we are as well in the middle of a war: “The road leading up to the gate of the compound is lined with Hesco barriers. They look fragile, almost transparent.” (page 2, line 61-62). These barriers are most often being used as some sort of levee or protections against explosions. Most often these are being used in the Middle East. Later on, the main character mentions the place Tang e-Gharu: “[…]the sweat of a man who bathed that morning at dawn in Tang e-Gharu.” (page 5, line 137-138) A place located in the Eastern Afghanistan. Throughout the story we are given small hint to whereas the story takes place, and what is going on