Mission, a novel set in Kenya by Philip Spires, is published by Libros International.
Written by Philip Spires   
May 21, 2007
May 21, 2007 -- /prbuzz/ -- Mission, a novel set in Kenya by Philip Spires, is now available. Mission is published by Libros International and is the author’s first published novel, though it will eventually form part of a ‘Kenyan trilogy’, which will deal with different events in the lives of the same set of characters. The second book in the trilogy, A Fool’s Knot, is complete and will be ready for publication later this year. Mission is an African novel, not a novel about Africa. It deals with the concept of identity, seen through filters of poverty, religion, politics and, underpinning everything, justice.

Mission is set in mid-1970s Kenya. Five characters, a priest, a politician, a teacher, a school graduate and a retired army officer see a series of events from their own perspectives and thus respond differently to one particular event. The central chapter is set thirty years later in London to offer a perspective on how lives change. The novel deals with the concept of identity, seen through filters of poverty, religion, politics and, underpinning everything, an idea of justice, a continuum within which each character is seen to pursue some personal mission.

Michael, a missionary priest in Kenya, has just killed Munyasya, a retired army officer. It might have been an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician resentful of the power of foreign churches, tries to exploit the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a young church worker, and his wife, Josephine, have just lost their child. They did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael made a detour to retrieve a letter from the mission, a letter from Janet, a former volunteer teacher who was the priest’s neighbour for two years. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however, when he reveals that he was probably in control of events all along. Thirty years on, the same characters find their lives still influenced by his memory.

Philip Spires is British and was born in 1952 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. He spent his first ten years in Sharlston, then a mining village, followed by eight in Crofton, a mile nearer Wakefield. He went to London University, where he obtained a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College and a PGCE from King's, qualifying as a teacher of mathematics. After two years as a VSO in Kenya, he taught in London for 16 years and devoted much of his spare time to assisting an NGO concerned with development and human rights. After completing an MA in education in 1992, he worked in Brunei technical education until 1999. He then worked in Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates for three years. Since 2003, he has lived in Spain, and has completed a PhD in education’s role in Philippine development and his first published novel, Mission.

Contact: Philip Spires, Carrer Agro 5, 03530 La Nucia, Alicante, Spain
Tel: +34 96 687 3368
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About the Press Release
Mission is an African novel set in 1970s Kenya. It deals with the concept of identity, seen through filters of poverty, religion, politics and, underpinning everything, justice.


 
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