Abundance

(Paperback)

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Description

Julia is an American medical doctor fleeing her own privileged background to find a new life delivering health care to African villages, where her skills can make a difference. Carl is also an American, whose very different experiences as a black man in the United States have driven him into exile in West Africa, where he is an international NGO expat. The two come together as colleagues (and then more) as Liberia is gripped in a brutal civil war. Child soldiers kidnap Julia on a remote jungle road, and Carl is evacuated against his will by U.S. Marines. Back in the United States he finds Julias mentor, Levin, a Rhode Island MD whose Sixties idealism has been hijacked by history. Then they meet the thief. Then they meet the smuggler. And the dangerous work of finding and rescuing Julia begins.

An unforgettable thriller grounded in real events.

Reviews

"Michael Fine's novel, Abundance, is a riveting, suspenseful tale of love, violence, adventure, idealism, sometimes-comic cynicism, class conflict and crime... a story that displays both the deep disconnect between the First and Third Worlds and our commonalities."
--Robert Whitcomb, former finance editor of the International Herald Tribune and former editorial page editor of the Providence Journal

"Michael Fine takes us into the heart of a country at war with itself. But our journey, in battered Land Rovers, along potholed red dirt roads, is propelled by love, not hate. That love offers hope for Liberia, our often forgotten sister country, and anyone who confronts despair. Read Abundance. Reignite your own search for a life worth living."
--Martha Bebinger, WBUR

"A powerful first novel--an epic stretching from the civil wars of Liberia to the streets of Rhode Island. A joy to read!"
--Paul J. Stekler, Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker

Author Bio

A former director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, Michael Fine has been a writer, community organizer, family physician, and public health official for more than 40 years. In addition to his book Health Care Revolt, he has published widely in the medical literature, mostly about health policy. He served as a medical officer for Kenya and worked as a volunteer during the Liberian Civil War, the subject of Abundance, his first novel.