When his foreign currency dealings lose millions of dollars, Philippe skips town. Naturally, he finds work in the most remote area possible - as a cook for an oil company's drilling camp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. They're prospecting for oil and gas, but day in, day out, the well is dry. The work is erratic, tempers run ragged in the heat and isolation, and the threat of physical violence is never far away. Even if you don't know anything about the oil business, it doesn't make sense to have men sitting around in camp like this.
Something very big is corrupting the entire project. What does it mean if the seismics say there is oil when there isn't? How much time and money is too much when you're prospecting for oil? Then one of the crew is found murdered not far from the camp, apparently the victim of local tribal warfare. Another is taken off to hospital with bullet wounds. The truth comes as a shock - and forces Philippe to decide whether he can keep running forever . . .
Winner HarperCollins Fiction Prize
