When Stewart Munro's British tobacco company dispatches him to Mogadishu, he meets and falls in love with Amina Abdullahi, the stunning daughter of a wealthy Somali merchant. But trouble is brewing. Dictatorial President Siad Barre begins his persecution of the Isaq clan and bombs their northern city strongholds. Exposed in the south, Amina and her family are forced to flee the capital. Munro initiates a desperate but fruitless search for the woman he wants to marry.
In this gripping novel where the action switches intriguingly between Nairobi, London and Mogadishu, the author employs the principal characters as narrators of the tragedies that befall them over a twenty year period. Amina's eventual involvement in a pirate attack on the UN's Kofi Koranteng makes headlines in Britain, and re-ignites Stewart's obsession to find her. When finally they meet in the run-down border village of Kaambooni, he finds they have a dangerous acquaintance in common - one who has been the subject of his long suppurating hatred.
When Stewart Munro's British tobacco company dispatches him to Mogadishu, he meets and falls in love with Amina Abdullahi, the stunning daughter of a wealthy Somali merchant. But trouble is brewing. Dictatorial President Siad Barre begins his persecution of the Isaq clan and bombs their northern city strongholds. Exposed in the south, Amina and her family are forced to flee the capital. Munro initiates a desperate but fruitless search for the woman he wants to marry.
In this gripping novel where the action switches intriguingly between Nairobi, London and Mogadishu, the author employs the principal characters as narrators of the tragedies that befall them over a twenty year period. Amina's eventual involvement in a pirate attack on the UN's Kofi Koranteng makes headlines in Britain, and re-ignites Stewart's obsession to find her. When finally they meet in the run-down border village of Kaambooni, he finds they have a dangerous acquaintance in common - one who has been the subject of his long suppurating hatred.