Nearly 100 years ago Mary Henrietta Kingsley made a journey to Africa about which she wrote on her return in Travels in West Africa. In this blend of historical sleuthing and travel writing, Caroline Alexander describes the effect on her of reading Kingsley's book and her decision to make her own journey in Kingsley's footsteps, following her path as closely as possible. Staying at Catholic missions, travelling by pirogue through waterways and rapids, she encounters the ghosts of Trader Horn, Albert Schweitzer and Dr Robert Nasau. But contact with the past gives way to adventures which might have amazed Miss Kingsley.

Wonderful, simply wonderful. A story of love, healing, and forgiveness sure to grip the heart of every reader. --Debbie Macomber, New York Times #1 bestselling author In a Drought, It's the Darkest Cloud That Brings Hope It's 1954 and Perla Long's arrival in the sleepy town of Wise, West Virginia, was supposed to go unnoticed. She just wants a quiet, safe place for her and her daughter, Sadie, where the mistakes of her past can stay hidden. But then drought comes to Wise, and Perla is pulled into the turmoil of a town desperately in need of a miracle. Casewell Phillips has resigned himself to life as a bachelor...until he meets Perla. She's everything he's sought in a woman, but he can't get past the sense that she's hiding something. As the drought worsens, Perla's unique gift divides the town in two, bringing both gratitude and condemnation, and placing the pair in the middle of a storm of anger and forgiveness, fear and faith. -- This debut novel is splendid. The story is genuine and heartfelt, with just a touch of the Divine. A story of forgiveness and reckoning, and realizing love does cover a multitude of sins. Thomas will be a go-to author after you read Miracle in a Dry Season. --Rachel Hauck, bestselling author of The Wedding Dress and Once Upon a Prince Charming, whimsical, and intelligently written, Miracle in a Dry Season is a beautiful debut novel! --Ann Tatlock, Christy-award winning author of Promises to Keep

"A remarkable blend of geography, demography, sociology, development economics, history, cultural anthropology, ecology, politics, sharia (Muslim religious law), and government policies.... This book dispels many misconceptions and is an education in itself." Choice

South Asia, agroclimatic map. -- South Asia, the dry season as defined by Thornthwaite. -- China and Korea, the dry season as defined by Thornthwaite. -- Southeast Asia, agroclimatic map. -- Southeast Asia, the dry season as defined by Thornthwaite.