Stittsville author, John W. Egan, and Ottawa author, Bakar Mansaray, will hold a book launch for their novel, The Ebola War, at the Stittsville Library on Wednesday, 17 July, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm.
The Ebola War is the second novel about Angel and Mercy and the West African nation of Sierra Leone. John’s first novel, The Ceasefire War, introduced Angel and Mercy when they were child-soldiers, trapped in a Small Girl Unit of the rebels who held most of Sierra Leone in 2001. These girls wanted to surrender so they could stay together and stop fighting. Instead, they were separated and had to fight the rebels they had served, the agencies that would keep them apart, and the child traffickers who pursued them.
The girls and their story are based upon John’s experience while he was on loan to the Sierra Leone Army in 2001, helping fight the rebels and end a ten-year war.
Bakar is a Sierra Leonean who brought his family to Canada in 2001 to escape the war that John had come to help end. John asked Bakar to work with him on the second story to ensure Sierra Leonean views and Krio language were authentic. This was essential as Angel and Mercy would have reintegrated into Sierra Leone society over the thirteen years since the end of the first novel.
The Ebola War is set in 2014 Sierra Leone. Angel and Mercy are young women with promising careers, but without histories or families. A plan to free themselves from the last legacy of their rebel past is disrupted by the Ebola Crisis. Their hidden past and hopeful future begin to unravel when they are sent to help contain the outbreak. As the epidemic worsens, threats emerge that are as deadly as the Ebola virus. Setting this story in the midst of the Ebola Crisis was also a tribute to the many Sierra Leoneans who worked hard and took daily risks to stop the virus from spreading and to care for its victims. In effect, the novel tells two stories in one.
John has also written the historical fiction novels — the ‘Winter of 1813-beyond 1812’ and ‘Angel & Mercy-The Ceasefire War’. This new co-written novel will be an interesting read in follow-up to The Ceasefire War.
To discover more about John and his novels, visit this link.