Terry Stiastny

Lawrence used to be a journalist covering war zones but after his cameraman was shot in the Congo he suffered, divorced, and has virtually retired to France. Martin used to be Lawrence's boss and now runs a successful business which is about to receive a huge investment from the City. Lawrence is asked to work with an NGO and returns to the Congo but has to escape quickly, his daughter drops out of University and his life appears to be going nowhere. Meanwhile Martin is invested in the House of Lords but his relationship with a disgraced French businessman and his affair mean that personally and professionally his life is falling apart.

This is a very gentle tale about some big politics and the role of the media. I found it quite hard-going but that was mainly because there is little action to speak of and I found the characters very hard to like. There are lot of knowledgable insights from journalist Stiastny and the whole thing reeks of authenticity but it was just so slow.… (meer)