Anthony (Tony) Bruce was born in a small mining town in Zambia on the Congo border in Central Africa. His childhood was very similar to the life described by Karin Blixen in Out of Africa and he spent much of his youth hunting and fishing in the bush country. After completing his military commitment in the Royal Rhodesia Regiment he was trained by the Nchanga Corporation as a Mining and Engineering Surveyor. He married young and had two children. During this time the winds of change were sweeping through Africa and he and his family began travelling. As a family they worked and lived in Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the United Kingdom before immigrating to Canada. Here he trained as a commercial pilot in Victoria, BC, and on completion ferried a light aircraft to England via Greenland and Iceland. Prior to leaving Canada he was hired as an air survey pilot to fly in Zimbabwe for a two-year period before transferring to the Namibian Desert to work on the Rossing project, where much of the story in The East Wind is set.
Returning to Canada he worked for various Canadian companies who sent him travelling again. He has lived and worked in Malawi (railway project), Kenya (wheat research / construction), Colombia, Ecuador (mining), and Indonesia (water-resource development) with short periods back in Canada between contracts. Recently he and his wife purchased a piece of raw forest on Saltspring Island and lived in a battered mobile home for three years while building their dream home and are slowly turning five acres of wilderness into a self-sustaining enterprise.
The new novel, The Consequence of Memory, departs from the previous adventure/political/espionage thrillers, The East Wind, To Taunt a Wounded Tiger, A Lie to Comfort the Dying and The Gatekeeper of Lies to a murder on a lonely hill in Kenya, that touches the lives of three men in Canada and a woman in South Africa and introduces detective Stephen Njoroge.
From the cold rainforests of Western Canada to the searing heat of the Namib . . . A man marked by a bitter war; A woman lost between love and duty; A youth, arrogant, indulged, unable to understand that great wealth is no substitute for skill and courage; An ex-mercenary pilot trying to bury memories of a time when life was cheap. . . All caught in the maelstrom of the East Wind.
The East Wind deals with the effect of a dysfunctional family relationship and a brutal war on one man's journey through life. Alienated and disinherited by a cruel and abusive father, the eldest son of the wealthy and powerful head of a Canadian timber dynasty has survived three tours of duty as a Marine Combat Engineer in Vietnam. This man, after his service in Vietnam, is a self-contained and lonely individual who, as an international construction engineer, has made a life devoid of close human contact. While working on a Uranium mine project in the Namibian desert is visited by his nephew from Canada. The nephew, an unpleasant, undisciplined youth, causes a serious crisis and is ordered home by his uncle. The courage, loyalties and family ties of both men are savagely tested when the nephew is lost in the desert during the scorching annual phenomenon known locally as the "East Wind". When the uncle unexpectedly becomes involved with the wife of a colleague, he finds his own carefully-structured emotional defense mechanics are no longer adequate and he must deal with the death of a close friend, his nephew's criminal behaviour, and the conflict of loving someone he cannot have.
Excerpt:
. . . As yet he didn't feel thirsty, though his body had begun to give up precious fluid to keep his vital organs cool; dehydration had started and despite the heat he shivered. He tried to remember all that Kresfeld had said but only the frightening statistics came to mind.
. . . This was the Namib, the oldest desert on earth, known to the Bushmen, those tough hardy survivors from the Stone age, as the land God made in anger. Here time meant nothing. Here the incredible Welwitschia plant drawing water from the night mist had been dated to centuries before the birth of Christ. In the empty silence he could hear his own heartbeat. To hide the welling fear from himself he began to scream curses against the father who had placed him in this position and the uncle who had done nothing to prevent it happening. Not even an echo came back to mock him, for the desert didn't care. Men had died here before and if imprudent or unlucky would do so in future. Finally he fell silent, exhausted, and the tears came spilling over sunburnt cheeks to evaporate in the hot dry air. More precious liquid was lost and his body died a little more . . .
Título : The East Wind
EAN : 9780968178768
Editorial : Anthony Bruce
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