by William Boyd
First published 1984
Temple Smith farms coffee in German East Africa when World War One erupts around him. The conflict tears through his quiet colonial life, forcing him into a war he never wanted to fight. Miles away, Felix Cobb, a young English aristocrat, arrives with romantic notions of military glory. The war throws these men and others into the brutal East African campaign, where European powers battle across unfamiliar terrain. Lives intersect in unexpected ways as the fighting drags on. Love affairs bloom and collapse. Betrayals cut deeper than enemy bullets. Comedy emerges from the absurdity of civilized men trying to wage civilized war in an uncivilized place. The characters discover that war changes everything it touches, stripping away pretenses and revealing who they really are underneath their colonial facades.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, war, africa
Vibes: emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: German East Africa
Period: World War One
Mass Market Paperback · Penguin Books
Content warnings: war