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The Road to Makokota
African American engineer Craig Allen Hammond returns to West Africa to look for his former lover and his sixteen-year-old son, but when he finds their village destroyed, he begins a dangerous journey through a country in the midst of a civil war to find them.
202 pages, Hardcover
First published January 19, 2004
About the author
Stephen Barnett
1 book1 followerThere is more than one Stephen Barnett in the Goodreads catalog. This entry is for Stephen [3^] Barnett, novel writer.
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July 15, 2011
Well researched and written with truth, The Road to Makokota receives five stars from both myself and my husband.
Set in present-day West Africa, the book’s protagonist is in danger from the first page—from himself and those around him. Craig Allan Hammond has returned to the country, where he built a road 16 years earlier, to search for the woman and child he left behind. Hammond had been able to keep track of them through the letters Kuyateh, an old friend, sent to the States, one every year. Now even those have stopped, and civil war is tearing the country apart.
For the last decade and a half, Hammond has been living in trailers, moving every couple of years and working jobs that don’t mean anything to him. He drinks too much, he smokes too much and he’s known too many women but not enough love. When his mother dies, it hits him—leaving is the only thing he’s gotten good at.
Consumed with fear, guilt and shame, Hammond needs to find Oussumatu Turay and their son, Abu, and bring them out of the killing zone to safety in order to save himself. But if their fate is similar to other villagers, his son likely has died while fighting with one of the child armies while Oussu was murdered after being brutally tortured and raped.
After several days of searching the refugee camps, Hammond has to accept the offer of one-time diplomat Claude Bayeh to buy passage with a group of gunrunners heading toward Makakota, the village where he last saw Oussu and Abu. His traveling companion is Katya, a Polish nurse who has been working in the camps and has her own secrets to hide.
Hammond doesn’t lose his will or ability to love others, even though he still must learn that you can’t always deny and avoid troubling times, as this is the only way to learn certain lessons and receive the gift of a life now richer in meaning. He also must learn that when you don’t forgive yourself, you also hurt those around you.
Author Stephen Barnett is a master at describing Hammond’s journey in chilling detail, in plotting a narrative that is full of subtleties and symbolism, and of developing layers of meaning that are open to interpretation. Barnett also is gifted with the ability to select the right words to convey a meaning. His writing is philosophical, stark and gritty, concise and pithy, and graceful and lyrical. He excels in building suspense while making you think and wonder.
If you like novels with an intense, taut storyline that suggest things—that leave scenes unwritten and things unsaid so that you can grow along with the protagonist—The Road to Makokota is both a gripping novel and highly recommended reading. Its surprise ending will keep you thinking and believing.
Set in present-day West Africa, the book’s protagonist is in danger from the first page—from himself and those around him. Craig Allan Hammond has returned to the country, where he built a road 16 years earlier, to search for the woman and child he left behind. Hammond had been able to keep track of them through the letters Kuyateh, an old friend, sent to the States, one every year. Now even those have stopped, and civil war is tearing the country apart.
For the last decade and a half, Hammond has been living in trailers, moving every couple of years and working jobs that don’t mean anything to him. He drinks too much, he smokes too much and he’s known too many women but not enough love. When his mother dies, it hits him—leaving is the only thing he’s gotten good at.
Consumed with fear, guilt and shame, Hammond needs to find Oussumatu Turay and their son, Abu, and bring them out of the killing zone to safety in order to save himself. But if their fate is similar to other villagers, his son likely has died while fighting with one of the child armies while Oussu was murdered after being brutally tortured and raped.
After several days of searching the refugee camps, Hammond has to accept the offer of one-time diplomat Claude Bayeh to buy passage with a group of gunrunners heading toward Makakota, the village where he last saw Oussu and Abu. His traveling companion is Katya, a Polish nurse who has been working in the camps and has her own secrets to hide.
Hammond doesn’t lose his will or ability to love others, even though he still must learn that you can’t always deny and avoid troubling times, as this is the only way to learn certain lessons and receive the gift of a life now richer in meaning. He also must learn that when you don’t forgive yourself, you also hurt those around you.
Author Stephen Barnett is a master at describing Hammond’s journey in chilling detail, in plotting a narrative that is full of subtleties and symbolism, and of developing layers of meaning that are open to interpretation. Barnett also is gifted with the ability to select the right words to convey a meaning. His writing is philosophical, stark and gritty, concise and pithy, and graceful and lyrical. He excels in building suspense while making you think and wonder.
If you like novels with an intense, taut storyline that suggest things—that leave scenes unwritten and things unsaid so that you can grow along with the protagonist—The Road to Makokota is both a gripping novel and highly recommended reading. Its surprise ending will keep you thinking and believing.
Displaying 1 of 1 review