A review of Baobab by Larry Hill, First Edition Design
Publishing, Sarasota, Florida, 2019
This entertaining novel is set in a U.S. embassy in a
fictious African nation just south of the Sahara Desert. The tale of political intrigue as pressures
mount towards a coup d’etat is intertwined with the complicated lives of
American diplomats. Author Hill, himself a diplomatic doctor, gives his
fictional counterpart the inside scoop of what is going on with the various
folks under his charge. As expected in a novel from a doctor, there is a good
bit of medical lore and some blood and guts as the story unfolds. All told the
plot works and along the way the reader gets an inside sardonic view of embassy
personnel.
As a long-term diplomat in Africa myself, I enjoyed the
book. Much of it - in caricature fashion of both Americans and Africans - is
right on target. I found the bit about the inutility of military surplus
medical equipment to ring especially true.
Baobab is a good summer read.
