A compelling, entertaining novel. A compassionate account of drought-stricken suffering and privation in an imaginary, least-developed African country. The description of relief and recovery activities offers readers a vivid insight of the many and varied challenges of mitigating, preparing for, responding to, and combating such crises as severe drought--a description that may also assist prospective disaster managers. People's pleasures and their unexpected perils during that country's emergency further illustrate life at the sharp end and blunter end. But remain aware, readers, that the narrator--a university tutor--leads a double life.

Author Biography

While a research fellow at Oxford University, the author contributed to two nonfiction books: World Armies edited by John Keegan, then a senior lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (ISBN 0-333-34079-5), and The Defense of Western Europe edited by Leo Gunn of Stanford University (ISBN 0-7099-1194-7). Between army retirement and working with the United Nations in Africa, the author's coverage of organization and logistics in the West's first International Military and Defense Encyclopedia (ISBN 0-02-881011-2) was published by Brassey's (United States) Inc.