|
[Charles Davis's] accomplishment here is decidedly literary, a story, with straight-arrow commentary that answers war, pursuit, and savagery with love and belonging.—Foreword Magazine
This is a remarkable journey through the real and imagined landscapes of civil war-torn Africa. It is a poignant, philosophical, sincere work that is by turns hopeful, harrowing, amusing, educational, and horrific. It is the story of three people—a man, a woman, and a child—who are, each for their own reasons, fleeing across deserts, mountains and craters, to escape the terrifying clutches of the Warriors of God. It is a story set at the crossroads of conflicting ideologies, religions, and power structures. It is a story in which each character searches for the freedom to be able to tell their own stories in their own ways, despite, or in spite of the oppression they face. It is a story about finding a voice. —The New York Journal of Books
An absorbing read. A novel of evasion and pursuit, set in Africa and written in the spare, allegorical style of Davis’ first novel, Walk on, Bright Boy. —Kirkus
An exciting and thoughtful adventure story as well as a subtle political and philosophical meditation on Sudan’s long-term tragedy, this book should appeal to readers of varying ages and interests. —Library Journal
It's hard to fault this tale of violence and literary redemption set in Africa. The narrator, a local nicknamed the Barefoot Librarian, rescues Kate, a white scholar passing through and intent on exposing the atrocities of an undeclared civil war that has ravaged the unnamed country. Their perilous journey is laced with danger as a murderous group tracks them. —Publishers Weekly
Two people, two faiths, one hope, one destiny . . . .
A white woman and a black man, stranded in the desert in a land laid waste by
an undeclared war. She is a campaigning academic and believes in justice,
absolutely. He is a barefoot librarian and believes in books, just about. Hunted
by The Warriors of God, they must take refuge in the mountains and learn to live
with their divergent beliefs if they are to survive.
Examining themes broached in Charles Davis' first novel (Walk On, Bright
Boy), Standing At The Crossroads explores the parallels between walking and
reading, the nature of belief, and the transformational power of storytelling.
As the two protagonists are pursued across the mountains, they discover an
unlikely love that is of itself their best riposte to the fanatics who want to
kill them, and which reaches its climax in the shattering, final confrontation.
Charles Davis is the author of Walk On, Bright Boy (Permanent Press 2007),
Walking The Dog (Permanent Press 2008), and numerous walking guides. For more
biographical details, background information, regular blogs, reviews, essays,
squibs, sample chapters, free short stories, and pretty much anything that takes
his fancy, see www.redroom.com/author/charles-davis.
Price: $26.00
|