Description:
In 1938, the High Command of Nazi Germany adopted a plan for expelling all the Jews of Europe to the island of Madagascar, off the southeast coast of Africa. The plan was abandoned. Children of the Dusk asks, "What if...?" The story sets up a powder keg of tension in the characters of a politically important pregnant woman, two Nazi leaders who have very different military and personal agendas, a charismatic Jewish scholar, a dozen German shepherds and their trainers, over a hundred Jews released from a concentration camp, and two powerful African natives. The richly imagined setting for the explosion is a tiny island near Madagascar, covered with eerie rain forest and unusual animals, and replete with mystical traditions. The result is a novel with horrific incidents, intense feelings, and suspenseful action--all rendered in a fluid, dreamlike style, as if written in the haze of a tropical fever. Note: Children of the Dusk is the third book of a trilogy titled The Madagascar Manifesto, of which the first two books are Child of the Light and Child of the Journey. However, since Children of the Dusk starts at the time of the arrival on Madagascar of the novel's dramatis personae, and provides all the necessary background, it can be read on its own. --Fiona Webster
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