What is the importance of the desert in the novel, Forest Dark?

Both protagonists' "supreme" (259) moments of transcendence occur in the desert. Jules is taken by the location manager for Yael's film into the desert somewhere "near Ein Gedi" (276) which is a nature reserve. Jules can smell the nearby Dead Sea. It is here that Jules stands in for the actor playing David, and then walks off into the desert, disappearing. The reader is not told where exactly Nicole is dropped off by the Israeli soldier, other than that it is at "the edge of Jerusalem" (254), though she believes she is at the house where Kafka spent his final days. The house contains a bed, which Nicole drags outside, and books, including the title "Forests of Israel" (255), which draws a link between Nicole's story and that of Jules. Nicole believes she has arrived at this house by "falling out of time" (259) and she subsequently experiences a fever and a moment of transcendence.