The Fire Inside

This is an intense social commentary that looks at the daily lives of a people that have had their hopes crushed. The narrative, told like an African folk tale, traces a life symbolic of the illusion that the people in this society are living. Told in first person by three different characters, the story is set up in the fictional city of “Gomorra.” It is the story of a family whose father’s unfortunate associations with the corrupt ruling party initially bring him wealth and a good life, but inevitably leads to shame and sorrow. Can such a poor man have his own house, his own children or even his own wife?

The book takes an interesting twist when his son escapes to the center of the world, Babylon. But Babylon has different problems. As love blooms, radical differences begin to emerge, the two societies begin to collide, and the past begins to catch up. The tragedy that befalls this family is the very tragedy facing a nation on the brink of collapse. Ultimately it’s a story of birth and death, love and betrayal, racial division and racial union, and the sacrosanct and the sacrilegious. It will make people laugh, and cry.