Zanzibar

Giles Foden

Jul 2014 · Faber & Faber

About this ebook

'Zanzibar . . . The name itself, languid and conspiratorial, was a kind of illusion. It seemed to speak of the heart's desire, of that yearning for paradise which is itself a sign we are fallen - that we are in the dirty realm of history, of actuality, of fact.'

The year is 1998. Nick Karolides is a marine biologist working on coral reef protection off Zanzibar - the East African island of slaves, sultans and spices that for centuries has signified both the exotic and the malevolent. On a trip to the Tanzanian capital of Dar-es-Salaam he meets Miranda Powers, an American who works in the US embassy there. Together they find themselves embroiled in a terrorist conspiracy, one with which CIA veteran Jack Queller has an ancient connection.

In Zanzibar, Giles Foden draws on current events in order to create a contemporary historical novel of dazzling virtuosity. Both an investigation of the idea of paradise and a powerfully dramatic political thriller, it features Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network long before 'September 11' made them notorious.

About the author

Giles Foden was born in 1967 and spent his youth in Africa. Between 1990 and 2006 he worked as a journalist on the Times Literary Supplement and the Guardian. In 1998 he published The Last King of Scotland, which won the Whitbread First Novel Award and was later made into a feature film. The author of three other novels and also a work of narrative non-fiction, he was appointed Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia in 2007. He lives in Norfolk.