First published 1999
Michael Killigan disappears somewhere in the West African bush while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer. Back home, two men launch separate missions to track him down. His father Randall, a ruthless bankruptcy attorney who dominates every room he enters, approaches the search like another hostile takeover. Meanwhile, Michael's closest friend Boone Westfall heads directly to Africa, armed with American cash and naive confidence in his passport's protective power. Randall wields his legal expertise and corporate instincts like weapons in his familiar territory of boardrooms and courthouses. Boone stumbles through unfamiliar terrain, discovering that his assumptions about money and privilege mean nothing in the African wilderness. Both men believe they understand how to get what they want, but the search for Michael forces them into territory where their usual tactics fail completely. The hunt reveals truths about themselves and their relationship to Michael that neither anticipated.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, african-literature, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: West African Bush, Africa
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