When David, a military student in West Africa, meets Maud, a fellow Briton who is an explorer and ethnologist, he feels an instant connection to her, despite a 16year age difference. He spends a summer vacation with her, collecting specimens, traveling rivers and jungles, and strengthening their connection. On his return to school, he is immediately conscripted into the Zulu Rebellion. Several years pass before he is able to get in touch with her again. At home in Britain, each feels like an outsider, Maud with her rights as a woman curtailed, and David now a med student who can dream only of her, and they cling together as the only constant in each other's life. Eventually love of the jungle and the freedom she had there lures Maud back, and David is unable to stop her. In this compelling and lush tale of colonial West Africa, Danze captures the beauty, wildness, terror, and warmth of the land and those who love it--and love each other. Ellie Barta-Moran
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Product Description
An Exciting First Novel Transporting the Reader Into Another Place and Time
In this deceptively simple tale, David Unger, an aging circus magician, recounts his life that began in the late 1800's in Colonial West Africa. His father has abandoned his medical career to mine for gold, along with many others who have fallen under the lure of Africa's riches. David's mother has since left the family and it comes as no surprise when David, who has entered a naval academy, becomes obsessed with Maud King, a British explorer who is 16 years David's senior.
David's life unfolds, spanning two continents, and giving him such adventures as working with and befriending Ghandi, taking part in the Zulu Rebellion, and training in both medicine and magic. But, it is his total and complete devotion to the elusive Maud that provides the principle focus to this memorizing novel.
Told in a style that is understated and elegant, Conjuring Maud has that ability to transport the reader to another place and time in an imaginative portrayal of the longings of the spirit and the triumphs of the heart.
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