Standing at the Crossroads

Davis's sincere latest (after Walking the Dog) is a tale of violence and literary redemption set in Africa. The narrator, a local nicknamed the Barefoot Librarian, is a shaman-type figure who rescues Kate, a white scholar passing through and intent on exposing the atrocities of an undeclared civil war that has ravaged the unnamed country. The bad guys here are the Warriors of God, and the first time the narrator saves Kate from them, she's amazed by his weapon of choice: he heads off imminent violence by reciting a passage from Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky." Indeed, the librarian is convinced the Warriors want him dead because they "do not like people reading." The librarian and Kate decide to travel together to Al Asher, a mountain refuge, and their perilous journey is laced with danger as the murderous group tracks them. Though readers may be a bit more skeptical than Davis and his characters are about the awesome transformative powers of storytelling, it's hard to fault the message. (Feb.)