A Dancer's Guide to Africa

by Terez Mertes Rose

Overview

Fiona Garvey, ballet dancer and new college graduate, is desperate to escape her sister's betrayal and a failed relationship. Vowing to restart as far from home as possible, she accepts a two-year teaching position with the Peace Corps in Africa. It's a role she's sure she can perform. But in no time, Fiona realizes she's traded her problems in Omaha for bigger ones in Gabon, a country as beautiful as it is filled with contradictions. 

 

Emotionally derailed by Christophe, a charismatic and privileged Gabonese man who can teach her to let go of her inhibitions but can't commit to anything more, threatened by an overly familiar student with a menacing fixation on her, and drawn into the compelling but potentially dangerous local dance ceremonies, Fiona finds herself at increasing risk. And when matters come to a shocking head, she must reach inside herself, find her dancer's power, and fight back.

 

Blending humor and pathos, A DANCER'S GUIDE TO AFRICA takes the reader along on a suspense-laden, sensual journey through Africa's complex beauty, mystery and mysticism.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940164407124
Publisher:	Classical Girl Press
Publication date:	10/02/2018
Sold by:	Draft2Digital
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	582,026
File size:	544 KB

About the Author

Terez Mertes Rose is a writer and former ballet dancer whose work has appeared in the Crab Orchard Review, Women Who Eat (Seal Press), A Woman’s Europe (Travelers’ Tales), the Philadelphia Inquirer and the San Jose Mercury News. She reviews dance performances for Bachtrack.com and blogs about ballet and classical music at The Classical Girl (www.theclassicalgirl.com). She makes her home in the Santa Cruz Mountains with her husband and son. 

Editorial Reviews

"Vivid prose and rapt evocations of the African surroundings make the story come alive."

- Kirkus Reviews

“Hilarious and poignant, with a frank, observant narrator who seems forever on the outside looking in, and all the more lovable and relatable for that.”

-- Sarah Bird, author of The Yokota Officers Club and Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen

“Terez Mertes Rose knows dancing. She can make us feel its soulful allure. And in A Dancer’s Guide To Africa she captures the wonder, the culture divide, the longing and loneliness of being an outsider in the nation of Gabon. Better still, she delivers a cast of characters and a story that holds our attention from beginning to end. With this novel, Terez Mertes Rose, a savvy, insightful and entertaining writer, has come into her own.

-- John Dalton, award-winning author of Heaven Lake

“Rich with the smells, sounds, sights and culture of Africa, this novel takes us on an exquisite journey, through the eyes of a ballet dancer turned Peace Corps volunteer. A Dancer's Guide to Africa is at once funny and dark, and superbly nuanced.”

-- Marika Brussel, choreographer and former dancer

“A textured, sensuous, coming-of-age story that had me turning pages until the very end. I could almost hear the drums and see the firelight as I followed these believably drawn characters through their cultural and romantic escapades in this wonderful novel.”

-- Anne Clermont, author of Learning to Fall

“Terez Mertes Rose has drawn on her considerable passions—dance, music, and storytelling—to take readers on a sometimes mystical and often suspenseful journey. The spiritual, visceral, and sensory-laden beauty of Gabon was a believable and riveting backdrop for this touching story of a women discovering her truth and power. A Dancer’s Guide to Africa commanded my attention from the first page to the last sentence.”

-- Jennifer Haupt, award-winning author of In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills

From the Publisher