Freight Dogs

Description

1996: in a Ugandan dive bar, the 'freight dogs' gather. An anarchic group of mercenary pilots from Texas, Russia, Kenya and Belgium who transport weapons between warring African nations, without allegiance. And tonight they have a new recruit - Manu, a 19-year-old cowherd fleeing Congo's bloody war. Taken in by this band of unlikely brothers, he's soon seeing his vast country from above and falling in love with flying. But no matter how fast he flies, trouble follows closely behind. And when the past erupts back into this new life, Manu is forced to leave behind African skies for the chilly embrace of northern Europe. Will Manu be able to reinvent himself yet again? And is Belgian volcanologist Anke Desseaux the answer to his problems - or simply another one of them? From the writer of The Last King of Scotland comes an unforgettable story of survival - about how to live and love after trauma, set against a backdrop of world-shaking conflict.

Giles Foden was born in Warwickshire in 1967 and grew up in Africa. He is the author of four novels, Last King of Scotland, Ladysmith, Zanzibar and Turbulence, and one work of non-fiction, Mimi and Toutou Go Forth. For five years he was assistant editor of the TLS, and was then Deputy Literary Editor at the Guardian. He's now Professor of Creative Writing at UEA. He is married to Matilda Hunt and lives in Norfolk.

An amazing and profound work, rich in memorable detail. * Jay Parini * Every new novel by Giles Foden is something to celebrate - my hand leaps to the shelf. * Paul Theroux * Audacious, shrewd and spirited * William Boyd on THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND * Freight Dogs is an ambitious and intricate novel. Foden's understanding of the nature of war, and of this war in particular, is exemplary... Freight Dogs is also a fast-paced adventure yarn featuring battles, exploding volcanoes, buried secrets, a deathbed revelation, daredevil flying and an elusive love interest. In this Foden has cleverly reworked the grand African adventure novel epitomised by Rider Haggard and Wilbur Smith, or later, John le Carre's The Constant Gardener or Michael Crichton's Congo... This book is a testament to all those civilians, in Congo, Afghanistan, Syria, Colombia and elsewhere, whose lives have not so much been touched by violence as tossed round like flotsam on the waves of history and conflict. -- Aminatta Forna * GUARDIAN * A perceptive, compassionate history of an enormously complex conflict... compelling, vivid and surprising. -- Kevin Power * IRISH TIMES * Sharp and fast-paced... Foden does a fine job of locating the reader in the maelstrom of this brutal period in Congo's past... he takes us deep into the heart of a complex conflict, showing how even the innocent can get caught up in acts of horrifying violence. -- Alex Preston * OBSERVER * Underpinning and directing everything are ever-restless time and history, the biggest characters of all. At one point Manu "senses the rub of history, of past events [. . .] jointly seeking form, seeking a stable meaning". That's a pretty good description of what a novelist seeks too, and in Freight Dogs Foden makes a damned good job of it. -- John Self * THE TIMES * Full-throttle adventure -- Anthony Cummins * THE MAIL ON SUNDAY * Foden is a brilliant voice and African observer. * SPECTATOR *