Baraka or The Lives, Fortunes and Sacred Honor of Anthony Smith

Baraka or The Lives, Fortunes and Sacred Honor of Anthony Smith

Novel , 1983

Collins Canada / Bruguera

On the surface, Baraka is a raw, exciting story of oil, arms, and guerrilla warfare in the Sahara. But the core of the novel is the friendship and love which link Anthony Smith, Martin Laing, and Martin’s wife Cosima – and the ambitions, desires and values which rip that love apart. It is also about the great moral confusion which prevails when the ‘villain’ may be the nice man next door, who does not believe himself a villain.   Set against the background of Morocco, Thailand and Vietnam, John Ralston Saul weaves a tale of an oil deal which turns into an arms deal, and an arms deal which turns into a bloody civil war. It is a tale of corruption, of courage, and of dreams found and lost.