by Norman Rush
First published 2007
Ray Finch operates as a contract CIA agent in 1990s Botswana, posing as an English teacher at a private school. He loves his wife Iris obsessively, but she grows increasingly disaffected with their expatriate life. When Davis Morel arrives, a black holistic doctor determined to free Africa from Christianity, he completes a dangerous triangle. The CIA misreads local populist Samuel Kerekang's intentions, fixated on socialism's global collapse and rising black nationalism in neighboring South Africa. Ray receives his most challenging assignment yet as romantic and political schemes intertwine. A violent uprising erupts in northern Botswana, sparked by Kerekang but fueled by the Americans' tangled loyalties and desires. Ray must navigate between his crumbling marriage and his professional duties as both private betrayals and public misunderstandings spiral toward an explosive confrontation in the unforgiving African landscape.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, espionage, africa
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water, love-triangle
Setting: Botswana, South Africa
Period: 1990s
Paperback · Fayard
Content warnings: violence