Black Money: A Novel of Modern Africa

Chelsea, MI: Scarborough House. As New in Near Fine dust jacket. 1990. 1st Edition. First Printing. Hard Cover. 0812831403 . Signed by the author on the title page. Publisher's full black cloth, gilt lettering on spine. "Jonathan Grimes, a weak-willed American teacher, is given to gambling and drinking. In the Kenya of 1970, these traits put him heavily in debt, and render him vulnerable to blackmail by Bimji, an Asian shopkeeper whose income is garnered from highly profitable ivory poaching. The insecure Grimes agrees under duress to take Bimji's fortune in illegal "black money" out of the country, a task that seems simple at first but soon becomes complicated when Grimes's companion is murdered and his girlfriend Ellen is kidnapped. Grimes, Ellen and Bimji are unwitting pawns in an ever-widening circle of government corruption that reaches to the Home Minister, Charles Mathenge, a man of such concentrated power and unprincipled greed that he seems to be beyond the law. But police inspector Jacob Okiri, disarmingly honest and straightforward, doggedly follows lead after lead, ultimately confronting Grimes, Mathenge and Bimji on a deserted Kenyan beachfront for a violent finale. Set against a vivid, pungent East African background, this first novel by a former Peace Corps volunteer is a strong study of power that corrupts at every level and of idealism that persists." - Publisher's Weekly. George Rosen was born in Chicago and educated at Harvard. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya, which served as the setting for his 1990 novel, Black Money (Scarborough House), called by Kirkus Reviews "a sophisticated, rich, and tantalizing portrait of East Africa." Rosen also worked as a political speechwriter, a high-school debate coach, a low-income-housing consultant, and a semiprofessional actor. His short stories have appeared, among other places, in Harper's, the Yale Review, the Harvard Review, and a Harcourt Brace anthology of crime fiction, A Matter of Crime. Rosen has reported on West Africa for the Atlantic, on Mexico for the Boston Globe, and writes frequently for the Globe's op-ed page. He has been a radio commentator for the Boston NPR station, WBUR, and taught writing at Tufts University. His awards include the Frank O'Connor Memorial Award, two fellowships from the Artists Foundation, and most recently, a Fellowship in Fiction from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. . The volume is in perfect, pristine condition, tight, square and clean. The unclipped dust jacket (now in Mylar) has only the slightest chipping along the top edge only, else as new. AS NEW/NEAR FINE. . 8vo 8" - 9" tall. 197 pp. Signed by Author .