A doctor and a nurse, Paris and Helen, are doing humanitarian work in a nation on the brink of civil war. They have also fallen in love with each other-and Helen is pregnant with their child. Then, a confrontation breaks out and they are swept up by rebel forces and separated. One is imprisoned while the other escapes, and in The Colonial Hotel-which recasts a classic story of ancient Greece into a modern setting-we learn of their fates, in a brutally powerful story of family, forgiveness, and identity.
"...in Graham Greene territory... A solid novel on morality in our not-quite-postcolonial world..."
TheGlobe and Mail, Toronto
"An exploration of love and grief, the power of storytelling, the pains of parenthood and uncomfortable truths... Bennett has cleverly and sensitively described the many types of love tested by war... Rewarding and intensely moving... Devastatingly beautiful."
