1914. In a hotel room in German East Africa, American farmer Walter Smith dreams of Theodore Roosevelt. As he sleeps, a railway passenger swats at flies, regretting her decision to return to the Dark Continent- and to her husband. On a faraway English riverbank, a jealous Felix Cobb watches his brother swim, and curses his sister-in-law to be. And in the background of the world's chatter: rumours of an Anglo-German conflict, the likes of which no one has ever seen.
This is a slow burn of a novel, starts very very slowly with several unlikable characters and then ends up full of surprises towards the end.
I did not realise there was even a theatre of war in Africa during the 1st World War where the land appears to have killed more than live rounds.
A good historical novel which in my opinion may have been better if it had one less major character but it is still enjoyable. Boyd is inconsistent, when hes good hes very readable when he's off i.e Stars and Bars you resent the time wasted.
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