Tears Of The Maasai

In the tradition of Beverley Harper comes a sweeping story of love and danger . . .

After a disastrous affair, Jack Morgan is at an emotional crossroads. When he's offered a UN posting in Kenya he grabs it, believing time spent on foreign soil will help him forget and move on. But Africa is a land of danger, adventure and temptation, and within weeks of arriving Jack is seduced - by the spectacular Serengeti National Park, the rich Kenyan culture, and a beautiful Maasai woman named Malaika.

Strong, successful and fiercely independent, Malaika works in the Nairobi office of a US aid agency. But she, too, carries a burden within: she fled her abusive father as a young child, and in doing so was forced to abandon her majestic Maasai heritage and repress painful memories. Determined to protect her hard-won autonomy - a rarity for women in Africa - Malaika approaches Jack with curiosity. And caution.

But the heart knows no boundaries, and their love takes its course, drawing attention from officials both black and white. When Malaika is reunited with a Maasai man she had long ago forgotten, she is plunged back into a world of ancient curses and tribal responsibilities, a world for which neither she nor Jack is prepared.

At the centre of a gathering storm, Malaika and Jack must decide if their pasts can permit a future for their love . . .

Rich with historical detail as well as the sights and sounds of modern-day Africa, 'Tears Of The Maasai' is an epic story about family, responsibility, and the cost of loving. In prose that is as broad as the plain and as colourful as the wildlife, Frank Coates brings together black and white, old and new, and shows how we must first look back in order to look forward.