Keita Ali is an elite runner living in Zantoroland, a poor, fictional island that is erupting in political violence. When his father, a journalist, is murdered, Keita escapes to the wealthy nation of Freedom State–an imagined country much like our own. A stateless refugee without documentation, Keita must hide from the authorities even as he races marathons to support himself and ransom his sister who has been kidnapped. This tension-filled novel by the best-selling author of Someone Knows My Name is an astute exploration of dislocation, starting all over again, and the desperate need for home and community.
About the Author
LAWRENCE HILL is the award-winning and internationally bestselling author of The Book of Negroes, which was made into a six-part TV mini-series, and The Illegal, which won CBC’s Canada Reads and was a #1 national bestseller. His previous novels Some Great Thing and Any Known Blood also became national bestsellers. Hill’s non-fiction work includes Blood: The Stuff of Life, the subject of his 2013 Massey Lectures, and Black Berry, Sweet Juice, a memoir about growing up black and white in Canada. Lawrence Hill has volunteered with Crossroads International, the Black Loyalist Heritage Society, Book Clubs for Inmates and the Ontario Black History Society. A professor of creative writing at the University of Guelph, Lawrence Hill lives with his family in Hamilton, Ontario, and Woody Point, Newfoundland.
Reviews
A twisting, intricately woven yarn that spins itself out at an incredible pace. . . . Hill takes on the snarled, pressing issues of our moment in time. . . . His larger moral questions linger, provocatively.–Carrie Snyder
A sharp-edged, fresh and relevant take on immigration politics.–Kerri Miller
[A] remarkably prescient . . . gripping political thriller. . . . The reader will be left with lingering–and troubling–questions about how wealth and privilege is built by those are excluded from its fruits.–Elizabeth Hoover
Lawrence Hill manages that rare feat–a political thriller that never loses its heart. Keita’s story will entrance you, enrage you, and finally make you want to reach right through the page and hug him. With skill and grace, Hill reminds us of our interconnectedness with displaced people around the world. This is a book about the liberating power of compassion. Don’t miss it.–Dolen Perkins-Valdez, best-selling author of Wench and Balm
[A] taut political thriller. . . . Hill’s intricate, propulsive plot includes corruption, murder, and mayhem, and readers will be rushing to its fulfilling resolution.
