Book description
As Ed and Sarah Caine's plane passes over the Ngozi hills and begins
its descent into Kisuru, Sarah is dazzled by the purity of unspoiled
nature, the perfect environment in which to raise their son. Ed,
meanwhile, as Director of the Global Justice Alliance for East Africa,
looks forward to rolling up his sleeves and making a real difference in
a country that seems to be developing fast. Below them, in the sprawling
Makera slum, Stephen Odinga - who has to find a way of making more money
for his dying mother than they can earn through the family business
selling fried bananas - decides to try a more lucrative line of
business. Meanwhile, Joseph Getonga, a senior official in a government
that for five years has been failing to deliver on its promise to end
political corruption, is feeling isolated and exposed, while others
around him covertly seek personal advantage out of International Aid
programmes. And beyond the hills, a rebel army seethes and waits, poised
to tip the country into civil war. Before he knows it, the duplicity Ed
thinks he has left behind in England will begin to infect his own
family. Complicity explores, in urgent, breathtaking prose, the tensions
between our ideals and our reality, the deep rifts of cultural
misunderstanding and the true cost of uninformed good intentions.
'A vivid, sometimes shocking novel, which combines a fast-moving
narrative with an incisive, satirical critique of comprehensive
education'
JM Shaw lives in Bath. His first novel, THE ILLUMINATION OF MERTON
BROWNE, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth First Book Award.
