"A novel" - cover.

At the center are Benjamin and Bockarie, two longtime friends who return to their hometown, Imperi, after a devastating civil war. The village is in ruins, the ground covered in bones and drenched in deep despair. As more villagers begin to come back, Benjamin and Bockarie try to forge a new community by taking up their former posts as teachers, but theyre beset by obstacles: a scarcity of food; a rash of murders, thievery, rape, and retaliation; and the depredations of a foreign mining company intent on sullying the towns water supply and blocking its paths with electric wires. As Benjamin and Bockarie search for a way to restore order, theyre forced to reckon with the uncertainty of their past and future alike.