{"product_id":"lower-river","title":"Lower River","description":"\u003cp\u003eAward-winning writer Paul Theroux draws upon personal experience of living in Malawi in his eye-opening novel, about one man''s return to an Africa he no longer recognises, \u003ci\u003eThe Lower River\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDecades ago Massachusetts salesman Ellis Hock spent four years in Africa - and the continent has never left him. So when his wife walks out and his business goes belly up, Ellis turns back to the one place in which he briefly found happiness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet returning to the village of Malabo shocks him. The school he built is a ruin. The people he remembers are poor, apathetic, hostile. The country labours as if under a great, invisible burden. However, Ellis is determined. This is his escape, a paradise regained.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut escape can be a snare, a trap for the unwary . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Lower River\u003c\/i\u003e is a hypnotic, compelling and brilliant return to a terrain no one has ever written better about than Paul Theroux: the tragic stage of modern Africa, AIDS-ravaged and despairing in the face of creeping consumerism, greed and dependence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''Remarkable, admirable, riveting, heartbreaking. A masterly, moving portrait of how Africa ensnares and enchants''  \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''Terrific writing. Theroux''s senses are always on full alert''  \u003ci\u003eEvening Standard\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''Powerful, vivid, shocking''  \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''Theroux invests this very 21st-century journey into the heart of ennui with a caustic bite, like the snakes that pop up throughout''  \u003ci\u003eMetro\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''The sense of menace is masterful. Theroux has never written a better novel''  \u003ci\u003eSunday Telegraph\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmerican travel writer Paul Theroux is known for the rich descriptions of people and places that is often streaked with his distinctive sense of irony; his novels and collected short stories,\u003ci\u003e My Other Life\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Collected Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMy Secret History\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger at the Palazzo d''Oro\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Dead Hand\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMillroy the Magician\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Elephanta Suite\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSaint Jack\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Consul''s File\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Family Arsenal\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003ci\u003e The Mosquito Coast\u003c\/i\u003e, and his works of non-fiction, including the iconic \u003ci\u003eThe Great Railway Bazaar\u003c\/i\u003e are available from Penguin.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466780844405,"sku":"9780241957745","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241957745.jpg?v=1785654842","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/lower-river","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}