A Dancer in the Dust Author:Thomas H. Cook Twenty years ago, Ray Campbell, now a cautious risk-management consultant, was a well-intentioned aid worker dedicated to improving conditions in Lubanda, a newly independent African country. He is forced to reconsider that year of living dangerously when a friend from his time in Lubanda is found murdered in a New York alley. Signs suggest that... more » this most recent tragedy is rooted in the far more distant one of Martine Aubert, the only woman Ray ever truly loved and whose fate he?d sealed in a moment of grievous error: “In Lubanda, twenty years before, I?d rolled the dice for a woman who was not even present at the table, and on the outcome of that toss, a braver and more knowing heart than mine had been forfeited.?
Martine Aubert was a white, native Lubandan farmer whose dream for her homeland starkly conflicted with those charged with its so-called development. But Ray's failure to understand Martine?s commitment to her country had placed a noose around her neck, one tightened by a circle of vicious men, cruel taunts, and whistling machetes. It is Ray's return to the passion he?d once felt for Martine that makes A Dancer in the Dust the enthralling and moving story of two loves: Ray?s love for Martine Aubert, and Martine?s love for a homeland that did not love her back.« less