The greatly anticipated new novel by Norman Rush-whose first novel, Mating, won the National Book Award and was everywhere acclaimed-is his richest work yet. It is at once a political adventure, a social comedy, and a passionate triangle. It is set in the 1990s in Botswana-the African country Rush has indelibly made his own fictional territory.
Mortals chronicles the misadventures of three ex-pat Americans: Ray Finch, a contract CIA agent, operating undercover as an English instructor in a private school, who is setting out on perhaps his most difficult assignment; his beautiful but slightly foolish and disaffected wife, Iris, with whom he is obsessively in love; and Davis Morel, an iconoclastic black holistic physician, who is on a personal mission to "lift the yoke of Christian belief from Africa."
The passions of these three entangle them with a local populist leader, Samuel Kerekang, whose purposes are grotesquely misconstrued by the CIA, fixated as the agency is on the astonishing collapse of world socialism and the simultaneous, paradoxical triumph of radical black nationalism in South Africa, Botswana's neighbor. And when a small but violent insurrection erupts in the wild northern part of the country, inspired by Kerekang but stoked by the erotic and political intrigues of the American trio-the outcome is explosive and often explosively funny.
Along the way, there are many pleasures. Letters from Ray's brilliantly hostile brother and Iris's woebegone sister provide a running commentary on contemporary life in America. Africa and Africans are powerfully evoked, and the expatriate scene is cheerfully skewered.
Through lives lived ardently in an unforgiving land, Mortals examines with wit and insight the dilemmas of power, religion, rebellion, and contending versions of liberation and love. It is a study of a marriage over time, and a man's struggle to find his way when his private and public worlds are shifting. It is Norman Rush's most commanding work. "Marvelous . . . a portrait of a marriage and a political thriller . . . Rush merges the two successfully and somewhat shockingly."
–Time Magazine
"Rush's first novel, Mating, was magnificent. Mortals, as hard as it is to believe, is even better."
–Erik Tokells, Fortune
"Marvelous . . . One wants to call Rush the best writer of his generation, but one imagines that he would reject the category."
–John Homans, New York Magazine
"Rush has now produced three books so full of brainwork, contour, sinew and laser light that we don't want to leave home without him."
–John Leonard, cover, New York Times Book Review
"Rush has a canny understanding of Africa, a profound appreciation for the fine points of romantic love, a muscular style of description, and an eye for character [that is] frighteningly sharp."
–The Economist
"A surprisingly old-fashioned plot-driven spy yarn, set against an expansive backdrop of unresolved romantic and intellectual conflict."
–Chris Lehmann, The Washington Post Book World
"Hugely complex, deeply intelligent . . . No review can do justice to the impressive quality of the thought or the multifarious nature of the ideas [here]."
–William Boyd, L.A. Weekly
"Delightful . . .as Ray and Iris slowly tumble toward the recognition of real trouble in their marriage, the book illuminates them with a playful, intelligent light that any adult will find useful to see by."
–Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune
"Ambitious and spellbinding . . . Rush's words [dance] on the boundary between prose and poetry . . .[full of] thought-provoking, smart and often hilarious nuggets."
–Molly Knight, The Baltimore Sun
"Like Cervantes and Garcia Marquez, Rush achieves an overall effect of delirious comedy–dizzying, audacious, strange, and often sad, informed by the gravest of concerns."
–James Gibbons, BookForum
"An astonishing accomplishment
