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Read our sample translation of Choke Valley
About the book
Chickens, baboons, zebus and birds drop dead in the grass – as do two thousand men, women and children. But not before they try to tear the clothes off their bodies. There are no signs of other damage: huts and palm trees are intact. These are the facts. But what happened?
Thirty-six hours after the catastrophe, two Dutch missionaries are the first to descend into the valley of death. In the days that follow, scientists from Japan, Hawaii and Iceland are dropped off in the disaster zone by helicopter. From the edge of the valley, the African survivors look on in complete bewilderment.
Choke Valley deconstructs every single aspect of this mysterious mass death. In his customary, evocative style, Frank Westerman looks at the same event from three different angles. He guides the reader through the jungle of stories which has grown out of the compost of facts in the space of twenty-five years. What words and images have attached themselves to the facts and how have they developed into new myths? How do stories come into being?
