Acts of Faith

by Philip Caputo

Thirty years ago, Pulitzer Prize—winning author and journalist Philip Caputo crossed the deserts of Sudan and Eritrea on foot and camelback, a journey that inspired his first novel, Horn of Africa, and awakened a lifelong fascination with Africa. His travels have since taken him back to Sudan, as well as to Kenya, Somalia, and Tanzania, and from those experiences he has fashioned Acts of Faith, his most ambitious novel. A stunning and timely epic, it tells the stories of pilots, aid workers, missionaries, and renegades struggling to relieve the misery wrought by the civil war in Sudan.

The hearts of these men and women are in the right place, but as they plunge into a well of moral corruption for which they are ill-prepared, their hidden flaws conspire with circumstances to turn their strengths–bravery, compassion, daring, and empathy–into weaknesses. In pursuit of noble ends, they make ethical compromises; their altruism curdles into self-righteous zealotry and greed, entangling them in a web of conspiracies that leads, finally, to murder. A few, however, escape the moral trap and find redemption in the discovery that firm convictions can blind the best-intentioned man or woman to the difference between right and wrong.

Douglas Braithwaite, an American aviator who flies food and medicine to Sudan’s ravaged south, is torn between his altruism and powerful personal ambitions. His partners are Fitzhugh Martin, a multiracial Kenyan who sees Sudan as a cause that can give purpose to his directionless life, and Wesley Dare, a hard-bitten bush pilot who is not as cynical as he thinks he is and sacrifices all for the woman he loves.

They are joined by two strong Quinette Hardin, an evangelical Christian from Iowa who liberates slaves captured by Arab raiders and who falls in love with a Sudanese rebel; and Diana Briggs, the daughter of a family with colonial roots in Africa, who believes that her love for her adopted continent might be enough to save it.

Pitted against them is Ibrahim Idris ibn Nur-el-Din, a fierce Arab warlord whose obsessive quest for an escaped concubine undermines his faith in the holy war he is waging against Sudan’s southern blacks.

In a harsh yet alluring landscape, these and other vividly realized characters act out a drama of modern-day Africa. Grounded in the reality of today’s headlines, Acts of Faith is a captivating novel of human complexity that combines seriousness with all the seductive pleasure of a masterly thriller.   

Genres: Fiction, Africa, Historical Fiction, Sudan, War, Novels, Book Club

688 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

American author and journalist. Author of 18 books, including the upcoming MEMORY AND DESIRE (Sept. 2023). Best known for A Rumor of War, a best-selling memoir of his experiences during the Vietnam War. Website: PhilipCaputo.com

Reviews

[Snotchocheez · Rating 2 out of 5]

It pains me to give a ho-hum review to a novel that was clearly so dear to the heart of the author; "Acts of Faith" must've been a labor of love for Philip Caputo...sadly, what mostly is conveyed is the labor and not the love (at least to this reader).

I've never read a book so exasperating to read...often I was riveted AND bored at the same time. The core story is quite interesting: The world of humanitarian aid to Sudan during wartime and famine (as told by several different characters behind the effort) and how the effort turns from altruistic to entrepeneurial to monomaniacal (and, ultimately, futile). Caputo's love of Africa and the strife going on there totally shines through, and makes the story compelling. Where he stumbles (and where the story become moribund and dull) is Caputo's inability to connect the reader with ANY of the characters (and there are several in this epic saga) and what should've been a delight to read was simply a big, bloated bore.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

The compactness of this paperback format is deceptive; this book has an epic plot spanning years of political turmoil, an expansive cast that repeatedly sends you to the front of the book to refer back to the dramatis personae, and sometimes, just way too much going on.

Nonetheless, Caputo just barely manages this huge effort - a bunch of people jockey for contracts to fly relief aid to the Sudan. Whether it's profiteering or not is a theme; so is the benevolent paternalism many of the characters display. Beliefs are constantly questioned -- beliefs about God, people, and self -- and by the end of the book it's quite evident that the line between good and evil is as blurred as ever.

While it took more than 200 pages to meet all the main players in the book, it was well worth it - a satisfying read.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a disappointment overall. Give it a 2.5. I almost gave it a 3 but I don't know if I can say I liked it. It was sort of a love/hate relationship. I wanted to read it because of the Sudan setting which I wanted to learn more about. I know it was well-researched. I did learn quite a bit about the struggles there and in other parts of Africa. However, partway through it startd to deteriorate into a soap opera. The characters were colorful and interesting as one might expect in Africa. There was a full range of personalities from greedy entrepreneurs to sincere aid workers, from over-zealous missionaries to arms dealers and slave traders, as well as Muslim jihadists. I could have done without the "colorful" language and the sexual liasons though.

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This long but rewarding book is not particularly well written, but it's a compelling story (or set of stories), with complex characters dealing with a set of important issues. Most of the main characters are involved in providing aid to Sudan, plus two characters directly involved in the conflict, one a Muslim tribal headman who fights on the side of the government, and a nominally Christian rebel leader. All of the characters act out of some kind of faith, even if it's a secular faith. Most are unequivocally convinced that the end justifies the means, and all have to deal with the unintended consequences of their "acts of faith," especially a single-minded aid provider and an evangelical Christian from Cedar Falls, Iowa (unfortunately a stereotyped Iowa town). The author effectively juggles these overlapping stories, but perhaps excessively drives home his point about the dangers of single-minded faith commitments. In its conviction that God & the Devil are one & the same in Africa, it takes religion with deadly seriousness at the same time that it fundamentally questions it as a valid motivation for action. In this and in its implications for Americans' roles in the world at large, it is reminiscent of Graham Greene's The Quiet American.

[Will Byrnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sweeping masterwork in which Africa is the central character. The characters include a mixed race, UN bureaucrat, a ladies man, who falls in love with the much older, white, wealthy, colonial woman, an American entrepreneur, a daredevil pilot who seeks to earn his fortune and transport supplies to the neediest and least served in Sudan, a young American missionary who falls in love with and ultimately marries a tribal leader, a corrupt local businessman. Africa, in this accounting, is about “what is necessary.” Ideals are soon left in the dust of necessity. There are other characters aplenty, including an Arab chieftan, a Vietnam Vet flyer and an adventurous aviatrix. It will make a major motion picture some day. This is an adult tale, told about characters who are mostly nuanced, with some who are wholly evil, and the ultimate focus is on giving us a truer image than the headlines can manage of what Africa is all about. It is a complex society with many players. And the players themselves have conflicting interests.

I thought it was a good, if rather long, book for most of the 600 plus pages, but towards the end, I found that the elements came together nicely and I appreciate this as a sort of “The English Patient” for today. Heartily recommended.

[Tess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gave up on this book after about 200 pages. Would have loved to read more if I could stand the writing -- at its best, it is a powerful exploration of the moral ambiguities surrounding the West's role in the Sudan. But the message gets bogged down in trite, heavy-handed dialogue and tired platitudes, and after a while I just couldn't stand any more.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

By editing out approximately half of this book, one could discover a novel worthy of comparison to Graham Greene.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Do you suppose war to be here what wars are elsewhere?”… “Do you suppose that it is an event, with a discrete beginning that will proceed to a discrete middle und so weiter on to a discrete end? No! It is a condition of life, like drought. There is war in Sudan because there is war.”

“Like Vietnam?” Douglas murmured. “We’re here because we’re here because we’re here.”

Manfred’s gaze passed from the American’s face to his boots, then back up again. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

___

Acts of Faith is an odyssey in a way that meets the origin of the word: a story of how the lives of individuals are changed through the fantastic, horrific environments of war, and how this novel’s characters in particular emerge out the other side almost completely unrecognizable from how, and as whom, they began.

The author reinforces at every point that measuring the story of Africa – and in particular Sudan – upon the American scale of good and evil is a disservice to the people and the bargains they have arranged with this continent that seems also to be a god. It may in fact be a kind of irreligious sin to view Sudan as measurable in any sense of logic: Nothing goes unpunished. Tolls are extracted everywhere.

There are beautiful passages that you want to commit to memory (in particular the pages that describe the cultural characteristics of Americans) and other scenes when the cruelties of the natural and manmade worlds seem inseparable, if they’re not, in fact, the very same thing.

Acts of Faith is an amazing novel with unforgettable characters. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get through it, but I’m glad I did.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5. For a book about war in Sudan it sure cares a lot (and wants the reader to care a lot - spoiler: we don’t) about the sex lives of white people.

I am absolutely flabbergasted at the critical reception to this book. This 700-page bloviating monstrosity is a deeply unserious mockery of human intelligence.

I added half a star because its thesis - that Western intervention is a minefield of unintended consequences and general stupidity - is a point well taken. But it was a point already apparent before cracking the spine and not at all served by the pontification that followed. This is a ridiculous novel.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

At nearly 700 pages, this novel is a hefty read. But it's worth the effort for the rich characters and the musing on the outcome of deeply held convictions (the "faith" of the title), be they religious, altruistic, or romantic. The author turns too often to odd-couple romantic pairings, but I was willing to forgive the overuse of this plot device because I found the characters so interesting.

This book covers, in graphic detail, war in the Sudan, including the aftermath of bombings, hand-to-hand combat scenes, and, with perhaps more detail than was necessary, the inner workings of an airline involved in aid flights. The flawed characters include the leader of an Arab tribe, a SPLA leader, the owner of the small airline, an employee of the airline, a few pilots, aid workers, priests, and others. By shifting perspectives among several main characters, the author manages to tell a comprehensive story about the moral grey areas involved in trying to do the right thing.

Defintely a good read, and an interesting parallel to What is the What.

As an aside, there is a character from Texas who uses the word "y'all" in a way that annoyed me (and occasionally confused me) throughout the book. Y'all is a conjunction of "you all" and is a Texan (Southern) slang for the plural "you," which proper English insists is the same as singular "you." In this book, the Texan, Wes Dare, uses "y'all" as a replacement for singular "you," which is wrong and confusing.

[John Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book to read in conjunction with Eggers' What is the What. Both are set in Sudan and both focus on the conflict between the Sudan's Muslim / Arab population and its southern black population. While Eggers' book focuses on the refugees of the conflict, Caputo in "Acts of Faith" spends most of his time telling the stories of aid workers who help the tribes in southern Sudan. With the current conflict in Darfur, this is an excellent book to read to learn more about the country and its problems.

Caputo is a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and an excellent writer. I've read quite a few of his books recently but believe this to be his best.

[Jefferson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book because of my interest in the subject matter: The Sudan, aid flights out of Lokichoggio, rebel leaders, and adventurers.

By the end of the novel, the author states his belief that people do not grow or develop. He wraps up the complete lack of character development in his story with pseudo-philosophic prose. For example: "We know what we are, but know not what we may be. But what we become . . . is what we have been all along."

If you like the details of the world he describes, Acts of Faith is pretty handy. As a story, it is a complete failure.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was way too long. By the time I got to the last 100 pages, I was skimming just so I could finish it. I can imagine it is hard to write a book about Africa in less than 700 pages though because there is so much going on. I could have done without the chapters relating the background of the characters. I do not think they really added anything.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweeping, epic look at a forgotten corner of the world. Not perfect, but I love the ambition.

[Larry Bassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I experienced this book in the Audible format, following along and saving some portions from the e-book. This is a morally and ethically complex book that tells the story of a woman who was born in Iowa, but who moves to Africa, and adopts a life as the wife of an African.

You will learn a lot about life in the Sudan and the active war there. You will learn a lot about Bush pilots, who fly under many difficult circumstances, transporting food, and medical aid to isolated areas.

There is quite a bit of description about missionary life in Africa, and the complex relationship between Islam and Christianity. That aspect of life is a critical part of the story.

I found the story interesting throughout, although the violence and religious proselytizing was difficult to take because of its Major role in the story.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monumental in scope, beautifully written

Rarely do I stumble across a book, fiction or nonfiction, that alters and informs my understanding of the world as has Acts of Faith. Philip Caputo intricately and beautifully weaves a tapestry of the complexities of African tribes and cultures in conflict, along with the churches and aid organizations competing for their attention and dollars, the gun runners, the do-gooders, and the white descendants of colonialists. His backdrop is war in Sudan in the mid 1990s, from after the U.S. Army lost a helicopter in Mogadishu to the attack on the US on 9/11. He fully develops the characters, carefully and intricately describes the lands and customs and conflicts, and beautifully paints the landscape of Africa. I only wish I had discovered this book when it first was published. I’m glad I found it.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried so hard to get into this book. Seems like it was written by a man for a man. Characters, of which there were too many, were difficult to picture. Airplane jargon and mechanical issues were numerous. Maybe if it had been several hundred pages edited out and things that were going to happen actually happened within a chapter or two I could have finished. A potentially good novel but too wordy."

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a novel, but firmly rooted in the surreal realities of modern-day Sudan. Caputo, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, wrote it after being on assignment for National Geographic Adventure magazine. He did a phenomenal job of capturing the Sudanese dynamic, including the strange reverberations set in motion by well-meaning if uncritical FBOs and NGOs. It's a great read, too.

[Lynda Stauffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first Philip Caputo, and not my last! This is a broad view of wars, works of charity, geography, cultures, powers that crush and powers that propel. Characters are fully formed. The author's pace is steady. I did not get bored on any page. This is a terrific book to sit and talk about. I used my Google map a lot. Go to Africa with Philip.

[Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn't get through it. The old writing adage, "show don't tell" great applies here. He goes on and on explaining characters' feelings and backgrounds when he could tell a story to illustrate. In the end, it was a slog which I'm pained to admit.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cast of many characters, but each dynamic and fascinating; the backdrop of the Sudan war gives a powerful and realistic presence to the novel. I'm sorry to leave it behind.

[Rachel Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this - involving characters, exploration of aid and war and an explanation for the mounted soldiers attack at the end of The Constant Gardner. Result!

[Sondra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because there is way too much going on in this 700-page saga to cover it all in a review of this length, I will limit my comments to the one character that interested me the most. Quinette Hardin is a young American woman from a rural Midwestern background caught in the middle of a bloody war between the Muslim-backed Sudanese government and black African insurgents. From the beginning I was impressed with the author's ability to depict a strong female character without resorting to the misogynistic Madonna/whore stereotypes that populate the pages of so many modern American novels. Quinette bravely endures the difficulties of living in the African bush---a near-starvation diet consisting mainly of ground-up beans, a chronic lack of water for drinking and bathing, bouts of severe diarrhea from parasitic infections, tic bites, and of course the lack of toilet paper---while struggling with conflicting emotions that range from homesickness, self-doubt, and her romantic feelings toward the Nuban commando who leads the insurgency against government forces.

Unfortunately my admiration for this courageous woman took a nosedive toward the end of the novel when Quinette becomes increasingly obsessed with the need to 'prove herself' and to 'fit in' with her newly adopted culture despite her white skin. She submits to a barbaric tribal ritual that involves the mutilation of a woman's body by cutting patterns into the skin of her belly and back during certain crucial stages of her life such as marriage and the birth of her first child. Afterwards she becomes a submissive wife to her new husband and soon learns to revise her expectations of marriage in a part of the world where monogamy and marital fidelity are not regarded with same high esteem they are given here in the USA and other Western cultures.

As often happens with novels set in foreign locales, the exotic setting trumps both the plot and the characters. While some reviewers might consider this a defect, I found the author's well-crafted descriptions of the African landscape enough to keep me engaged until the end.

I agree with the many reviewers who said this novel is much too long. With the proper editing, it might have ranked with Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible as some of the best American writing about Africa on the market today. As is, despite being too long and in places tedious, I would still recommend it to those who are curious about a part of the world that is among the least known and least understood places on Earth.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm, I thought I wrote a review of this one back when I read it, but it doesn't seem to be here now. Well, I heard about it from other folks who know Sudan well and recognized the characters for the real people they are based on. I read the last half in one long jet-lagged night shortly after arriving in Khartoum. I liked the different story lines, when one got a little tedious it would switch to another. It didn't feel much to me like the Sudan that I've experienced, but I guess that's because I've never been to the South - and I expect that things have changed a lot since the 90s when this is set. It's a good introductory read for people interested in learning more about Sudan, because it covers many of the issues but in a less dry way than non-fiction. When I finished reading it, I wanted to talk about it with someone who was in Sudan during the time period, but now I can't remember it well enough to have a good conversation about it...

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book with a compelling plotline and a five star ending that just takes too long getting there. When the middle third of this read turned out to be pretty much nothing but unlikely love affairs between at least four couples, I wondered what was going on in Caputo's life during the writing that caused him to forget his novel about Sudan and start writing a soap opera. I almost gave up, but the last third of the book is so good, and the ending is the kind of Graham-Greene-sobering that a war book requires. A cover review likens this book to "The Quiet American," and if the first two thirds were as good as the final third, that would be a possibility. Unfortunately, you'll have to read a decent beginning and slog through a bland and sometimes awkward middle to reach such a stellar ending. Along the way there are some gems of quotes, which I always appreciate, such as, "conviction will blind you if it is not shadowed by doubt." Wow.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whew! I wish I could say this was a labor of love but it seemed more often than not like just labor. The setting, the characters (an enormous and somewhat overwhelming cast), and the generalities of the plot all show such promise but stagnate often. I was intrigued by the concept of people operating wholeheartedly in faith for altogether different purposes -- some with their faith in the Lord, some in Allah, some in themselves and some in goodwill. Near the end the author revealed more of his own impressions of some of those faiths than perhaps I would have liked. I hope to find another book on Sudan to help better inform my own thoughts.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

An extremely slow, detailed look at the plight of 4 different characters and their lives in war-torn Sudan. Quinette first goes as a missionary, but becomes the first wife to an SPLA commander. Douglas feigns to be a philanthropic business owner whose downfall is one he promised would never happen. Pilot Wes loses everything right when it looked like it couldn't go wrong. Fitzhugh, the had-been soccer phenom, journeys from idealistic hot-head, to Doug's right-hand man, to plotter and giver of African justice. A book that could have been written in a third of the pages, but that leaves no detail in the ending to the imagination.

[Tom Sandefur · Rating 2 out of 5]

About 300 pages too long, frankly. The book vacillated between a story of adventure/tragedy in the Sudan and a group of pulpy romance stories. While the case could be made that the romances were metaphorical to the West's love and fascination with the African continent, in all they just kept sounding like dime store romance novels. If you can slog through it, though, the last 150 pages are a mesmerizing and really tightly written account of war and betrayal. But just getting there requires some endurance.

[Judith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Acts of Faith centers on humanitarian aid workers and pilots in the dangerous business of air transport delivering supplies to rebel-held territories in Sudan. The setting, the perpetual civil war between the Arab Muslim government and the Christians and others who live in often drought-stricken South Sudan, a varied cast of Western characters working there over a period of several years, and three couples’ love affairs add up to a very long book. It could have been a truly compelling novel if it was about half as long as it is.

[Claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have to admit that I almost made it half way through the book. For me, there were way too many characters, too many technical explanations of logistics, and too little character development. I liked the idea that outside actors in countries don't completely understand the situation that they're trying to "solve" and often act selfishly either to make money quickly or to fee like saviors, but I just didn't click with the writing style.