The White Rhino Hotel (Anton Rider)

The White Rhino Hotel is a sweeping saga of love and revenge, of greed and loyalty, of pioneers struggling for a new life amidst the beauty and wildness of the African bush in the years immediately after World War I. Desperate to win estates of virgin land, thousands of World War I veterans draw lots, with the winners and their families sailing for Kenya, not knowing what they will find. Like other Europeans and Africans before them, their fates often cross at Lord Penfold's White Rhino Hotel, where guests can gamble away their plantations or satisfy other desires. It is in this setting that Bartle Bull's powerful and wonderfully evocative novel of the driving forces of nature and man's spirit of adventure takes place. At the White Rhino Hotel travelers meet the scheming dwarf Olivio Alavedo, a man obsessed by lust and vengeance. To his enemies, Olivio is a cunning adversary. To the needy Lady Penfold, he is something more personal. To young Anton Rider and the courageous pioneer Gwenn Llewelyn, the dwarf is a subtle friend. Trained by gypsies to hunt, gamble and read fortunes, Rider comes to Africa seeking gold, freedom and adventure, but finds violence and the passions of older women. Hardened by war, herself the victim of violation and loss, Gwenn Llewelyn seeks love as she struggles to build a future in Africa. Set against a background of colonial and natural history, The White Rhino Hotel could only be written by someone who knows and loves Africa and who can tell a stunning tale.