Lawrence Hill is a fine writer, however, this is not one of his better works. It is the story of an exceptional runner, Keita Ali, who is from a fictitious country that seems to almost breed exceptional runners. His father is an investigative journalist (oh, and he is a also a character from another of Hill's works, but there is no reason for this recycled character, for there is no thread between the books). The father is brutally murdered by the evil rulers of the fictitious country because of some secret investigation he was involved in. Keita is forced to flee the nation before the cardboard cutout evil rulers get their hands on him. There is no explanation as to why they are so interested in the Ali family. Keita flees to a neighboring nation, where he is befriended by an odd assortment of characters who provide him with shelter, decent food and health care, and help him to enter one race after another in order to earn his way to clearing his father's tarnished name. I kept hoping something would evolve, which would answer some of my questions, and most especially the largest one, which was why I kept reading. But I did, if for no other reason than to warn unsuspecting readers who might be familiar with the author not to bother with this book.
400 pages
