Drawing on such disparate sources as Heart of Darkness and tales of the American West, a powerful and moving debut novel of one man's search for redemption deep in the badlands of South America

On the banks of a sprawling Brazilian river lies São Tiago, a place poised between the old ways and the new, fought over by gangsters and big business. It's a town for people with nowhere else to run; a place where Sam, a former priest, has ended up. He left England to help people, but what he's seen has scarred him, and now he cares about nothing except drinking and fishing on the great river. But one night changes all that, when a man lies bleeding on a dirt floor, and what starts as a fight to save a life becomes a battle with São Tiago's dark heart. Caught between friends and enemies, and entangled in the affections of an ex-prostitute and a predatory landowner's wife, Sam realizes that in a place where life is cheap, love can be deadly. As the long dry season stretches out ahead, Sam must face his past if he is to forge the chance of a future and survive in a town without a soul. Steeped in violence and rich in atmosphere, this is a novel of shocking strength, populated with vivid characters, wild settings, and raw emotion.