Freight Dogs

'Every new novel by Giles Foden is something to celebrate' Paul Theroux
'An amazing and profound work, rich in memorable detail' Jay Parini
'Foden has cleverly reworked the grand African adventure novel' Aminatta Forna, Guardian
'A perceptive, compassionate history of an enormously complex conflict' 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, taking us deep into the heart of a complex conflict' Observer

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 nineteen-year-old cowherd fleeing Congo's bloody war.

Taken in by this band of unlikely brothers, Manu hopes to reinvent himself. But no matter how fast he flies, trouble always seems to follow closely behind...

Foden is a brilliant voice and African observer.

Vorwort
From the acclaimed author of The Last King Of Scotland, Freight Dogs explores the individual consequences of Africa's 'Great War', distilling a world-shaking conflict into the unputdownable story of one man's life.

Autorentext
Giles Foden was born in 1967 and spent much of his early life in Africa. He was educated at Cambridge University. He has worked as a barman, a builder, a journalist, an academic, and as a rapporteur for the European Commission. For ten years, he was an editor and writer on the Times Literary Supplement and the Guardian, and his writing has since been published in Granta, Vogue, Esquire, The New York Times and Conde Nast Traveller, where he is a contributing editor. His fiction includes The Last King of Scotland, Ladysmith, Zanzibar and Turbulence. The Last King of Scotland was made into an Oscar-winning feature film in 2006.

Klappentext

It is 1996. Manu, a 19-year-old cowherd living on the slopes of Congo's fiercest volcano, must flee from a complex war. Taken to Uganda by a hard-drinking Texan, he is offered a chance to join an anarchic group of mercenary pilots or 'freight dogs'. Soon Manu is seeing his vast country from above and falling in love with flying - but trouble follows closely behind, no matter how fast he flies.
When the past erupts back into this life, Manu is forced to leave behind the African sky for the chilly embrace of northern Europe. Will Manu be able to reinvent himself again? Can he set down the freight which has weighed on his life for so long? And is Belgian volcanologist Anke Desseaux the answer to his problems or simply another one of them?

Zusammenfassung
From the acclaimed author of The Last King Of Scotland, Freight Dogs explores the individual consequences of Africa's 'Great War', distilling a world-shaking conflict into the unputdownable story of one man's life.