THE CURVE OF THE WORLD After New York businessman Lewis Burke's plane makes an emergency landing in a remote area in Congo basin, armed rebels seize the aircraft, forcing Lewis to flee into the rainforest. As he struggles to survive the unrelenting heat, battling thirst and hunger, he confronts his darkest fears and greatest disappointments: his crumbling marriage; his distant relationship with his seven-year-old son, Shane; and the lack of meaning in his life. When Lewis's wife, Helen, discovers that he has disappeared, she dares to search for him herself. As she and Shane trek upriver into the forbidding forest, thwarded at every turn by the military conflict raging around them, the boy's visions and dreams of his father give Helen hope. Meanwhile, Lewis is rescued -- and ushered deeper into the jungle -- by a young Congolese boy, who helps him find a side of himself he thought he'd lost. A stirring adventure, THE CURVE OF THE WORLD is a riveting story about crossing barriers and regaining love, and about the resilience and tenacity of the human spirit. * Top Ten BookSense Pick * * Amazon Editor’s Choice * * Barnes and Noble Discover Book * * Borders Original Voices Selection * * 2002 Book of the Month Club selection * Rights Information Publisher: Algonquin Books, Hardcover (May 3, 2002) Washington Square Press, Paperback (August 1, 2003) Highbridge, Abridged Audio CD & Cassette (April 18, 2002) Territory: World Rights Available: Reviews: "Tense and evocative." - USA Today "A gripping read." - San Francisco Chronicle "Marcus Stevens's debut novel, The Curve of the World, opens on a cinematic note...surprisingly well written, unfolding with the grim beauty of a modern-day Heart of Darkness...set against the author's deft depictions of war-ravaged villages, the poverty and resourcefulness of the rural Congolese, and the complicated politics of the region...This is a gripping story...and a complex, accomplished debut." - Regina Marler, Amazon.com "Combines a suspenseful plot with deeper meaning in a way that contemporary literature only infrequently manages." - Winston-Salem Journal "Delivered with great panache and telling detail." - Boston Herald "A taut well-paced adventure." - Seattle Post-Intelligencer "All the principal characters in this accomplished first novel are appropriately complex and appealingly human. The verisimilitude of the author's tragically chaotic Africa is compelling, yet not histrionic. Stevens, who is an award-winning commercial director, shows the reader; he doesn't tell. It's probably no accident that his very visual novel has already been optioned to Hollywood." - Booklist "[Marcus Stevens] puts the plot together with enough verve and solid writing that it draws in the reader...Stevens keeps the pace both lively and measured" - Library Journal "This diverting first novel catches the attention immediately...This author, who has traveled widely in Africa, also summon the landscape and atmosphere with vividly descriptive detail, and captures the terror of a man reduced to life's essentials." - Publisher’s Weekly Blurbs: Purchase at Amazon.com

THE CURVE OF THE WORLD

After New York businessman Lewis Burke's plane makes an emergency landing in a remote area in Congo basin, armed rebels seize the aircraft, forcing Lewis to flee into the rainforest. As he struggles to survive the unrelenting heat, battling thirst and hunger, he confronts his darkest fears and greatest disappointments: his crumbling marriage; his distant relationship with his seven-year-old son, Shane; and the lack of meaning in his life.

When Lewis's wife, Helen, discovers that he has disappeared, she dares to search for him herself. As she and Shane trek upriver into the forbidding forest, thwarded at every turn by the military conflict raging around them, the boy's visions and dreams of his father give Helen hope. Meanwhile, Lewis is rescued -- and ushered deeper into the jungle -- by a young Congolese boy, who helps him find a side of himself he thought he'd lost.

A stirring adventure, THE CURVE OF THE WORLD is a riveting story about crossing barriers and regaining love, and about the resilience and tenacity of the human spirit.

* Top Ten BookSense Pick *
* Amazon Editor’s Choice *
* Barnes and Noble Discover Book *
* Borders Original Voices Selection *
* 2002 Book of the Month Club selection *

Rights Information

Publisher: Algonquin Books, Hardcover (May 3, 2002)
Washington Square Press, Paperback (August 1, 2003)
Highbridge, Abridged Audio CD & Cassette (April 18, 2002)

Territory: World

Rights Available:

Reviews:
"Tense and evocative." - USA Today

"A gripping read." - San Francisco Chronicle

"Marcus Stevens's debut novel, The Curve of the World, opens on a cinematic note...surprisingly well written, unfolding with the grim beauty of a modern-day Heart of Darkness...set against the author's deft depictions of war-ravaged villages, the poverty and resourcefulness of the rural Congolese, and the complicated politics of the region...This is a gripping story...and a complex, accomplished debut." - Regina Marler, Amazon.com

"Combines a suspenseful plot with deeper meaning in a way that contemporary literature only infrequently manages." - Winston-Salem Journal

"Delivered with great panache and telling detail." - Boston Herald

"A taut well-paced adventure." - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"All the principal characters in this accomplished first novel are appropriately complex and appealingly human. The verisimilitude of the author's tragically chaotic Africa is compelling, yet not histrionic. Stevens, who is an award-winning commercial director, shows the reader; he doesn't tell. It's probably no accident that his very visual novel has already been optioned to Hollywood." - Booklist

"[Marcus Stevens] puts the plot together with enough verve and solid writing that it draws in the reader...Stevens keeps the pace both lively and measured" - Library Journal

"This diverting first novel catches the attention immediately...This author, who has traveled widely in Africa, also summon the landscape and atmosphere with vividly descriptive detail, and captures the terror of a man reduced to life's essentials." - Publisher’s Weekly

Blurbs:

Purchase at Amazon.com