Part One: Introduction

Sons of the Circus: Orientalist and Africanist Writing

Part Two: Sons as Explorers

``The Niger remained a mystery'': Fetishes, Bodies and Books in T. Coraghessan Boyle's Water Music

The Anti-Quest and the Migrating Tale: Lawrence Norfolk's The Pope's Rhinoceros (and Lempriere's Dictionary)

Part Three: Sons and Apes

The Battered Boys of Rice Burroughs: Tarzan and Jane Goodall

Chimp Wars, Guerilla Wars and Gender Wars: William Boyd's Brazzaville Beach, Will Self s Great Apes and Peter Hoeg's The Woman and the Ape

Part Four: Sons as Gay

Secret Sharing: The Closet and Empire

Out of the Closet? Alan Hollinghurst's The Swimming-Pool Library and Patrick Roscoe's The Lost Oasis

Part Five: Sons of the Soil

Crossing the Great Desert Void

Hybrid Landscapes: Adam Thorpe's Pieces of Light

Part Six: Conclusion

Sons of the Century

Bibliography

Index