The Darling

Russell Banks

As a student Hannah Musgrove was so passionate about injustice that she became a terrorist. Marriage and motherhood in West Africa dulled her political awareness but ignited her love affair with chimpanzees. Now on a journey back to Liberia, Hannah has to confront the ghosts of her past.
This is an epic and compelling novel, which brings home the violence and uncertainty of living through a civil war.

Extract

I walked alone to my silent, empty house on Dupont Road, in town. The streets were deserted, and everyone who had not fled the city had barred his door and shuttered the windows. I heard the occasional stutter of distant gunfire from Waterside and the rumble of military trucks and jeeps entering and departing from the Barclay Barracks, where the remnant of the president's special Anti-Terrorist Force was encamped.

Parallels