In East Timor in 1975, Indonesian soldiers are invading the village of Dili, raping and slaughtering as the go.
A young girl named Francesca sees her parents and two brothers shot and her baby sister taken away. She escapes, eventually discovered hiding under a pier by a man named Hasan. He has a boat and takes her to the city of Bandakan, hoping his boss, Benny Surikao can help the pretty young girl.
Interwoven in Francesca's journey are a cast of vividly drawn characters. Benny is an Indonesian man who facilitates things for the local Americans working in Indonesia for Constar, an oil exploration company. He gets Francesca a position in the home of Dennis Cole, who works for the company.
Amanda Cole, his seventeen-year-old daughter, has been asked not to return to her boarding school in England. Wild and emotional, she catches the eye of Rollo, Benny’s son. But Amanda herself only has eyes for Eddie, an older Vietnam vet and helicopter pilot for Constar. They are in love, and this angers Rollo. Benny’s nephew through marriage, Peter, falls for Francesca, and for a while life is starting to look better for everyone in the Reid household. But when Eddie is attacked, a series of events is put in motion that will have life-long consequences for everyone....
Set against a backdrop of endemic political corruption, moral compromise and the pursuit of oil, Francesca is a passionate story of one woman's struggle against overwhelming odds to shape the country that nearly destroyed her.
Donald Finnaeus Mayo was born in London and grew up in Australia and South East Asia, the backdrop for Francesca. He was educated in England, where he graduated in Politics and Culture. He has worked variously as a radio journalist for the BBC, a business writer for major corporations, and as a photographer. Currently Mayo lives in Hampshire with his wife and three children. You can find out more about the background and history behind Francesca, as well as forthcoming titles at donaldfinnaeusmayo.com
