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When a potentially lucrative copper deposit is discovered by an American mining company on the farmland of the Makenda tribe in eastern Kenya, the local government seizes the opportunity to secure a new source of revenue. The young Makenda King, Ule Samanga, is told to relocate his people to a refugee camp in Nairobi. He angrily refuses. Faced with devastating the future of his rural tribe, he calls on the spirits of his ancestors to help him protect their sacred homeland. When he discovers a letter, written fifteen years earlier, revealing he has a half-brother in New York, the young king takes it as an omen and engages a young African woman at the Ministry of Culture in Nairobi to help him locate his brother in New York. Curtis Jackson is a struggling mortgage broker and former jazz prodigy, trying to keep his business afloat during the financial crisis of 2008. At first he has no interest in developing a relationship with his newly discovered African family. When an ambitious executive from the mining company offers him a substantial sum of money to appease the Makenda tribe, he changes his mind. ADVANCE READER COPY EDITION With less than altruistic motives, Curtis' journey to Africa becomes a spiritual odyssey and changes him in ways he never imagined. Determined to reveal the truth behind the political machinations, he joins with his brother and his father's people in the fight to keep their homeland. In this assured and compelling debut, Richard Crystal (brother of Billy) weaves a story with contemporary moral imperatives and real world parallels, incorporating the dichotomy between modern American business and a thriving rural African culture, the election of President Obama and its impact in Africa, the history of jazz music in America and the enormous power of family.
