Assegai
Part of the 'Courtney' series
Assegai is on the New York Times best-seller list, reached #1 on the UK Sunday Times best-seller list a week after publication, and topped the Argentinian, Australian, Canadian, Italian and South African best-seller lists!
My latest novel, Assegai, was published in Italy on 5 March, in South Africa on 12 March, in Australia and New Zealand on 1 April, in the United Kingdom and Hungary on 3 April, in Argentina on 2 May, in the United States and Canada on 12 May, in Turkey on 14 May, in Norway on 20 May, in France on 18 June, in Denmark on 25 June, in the Netherlands on 29 June, in Finland on 21 September, and in the UK as a paperback on 2 October 2009.
Assegai will be published in Greece by Harlenic on 29 January 2010, in Portugal in February, in the Czech Republic and in Poland in March, and in Russia in May 2010.
In 1913 Leon Courtney, an ex-soldier turned professional hunter in British East Africa, guides rich and powerful men from America and Europe on big game safaris in the territories of the Masai tribe. Leon has developed a special relationship with the Masai.
One of Leon's clients is Count Otto Von Meerbach, a German industrialist whose company builds aircraft and vehicles for the Kaiser's burgeoning army. Leon is recruited by his uncle Penrod Ballantyne (from The Triumph of the Sun) who is commander of the British forces in East Africa to gather information from Von Meerbach. Instead Leon falls desperately in love with Von Meerbach's beautiful and enigmatic mistress, Eva Von Wellberg.
Just prior to the outbreak of World War I Leon stumbles on a plot by Count Von Meerbach to raise a rebellion against Britain on the side of Germany amongst the disenchanted survivors of the Boer War in South Africa. He finds himself left alone to frustrate Von Meerbach's design. Then Eva Von Wellberg returns to Africa with her master and Leon finds out who and what she really is behind the mask...
Assegai is the latest of the Courtney novels.
Reviews
- The unflagging career of Wilbur Smith is remarkable. Smith, 76, began publishing in the mid 1960’s. He is not only the only author from that era to endure: John le Carre, P D James, Ruth Rendell and Dick Francis are also stars still. But he, unlike them, remains popular in a genre – gung-ho adventure… Defying another trend, Smith’s hardback novel Assegai has, albeit at heavy discounting, outsold every novel in paperback. – The Times
- Smith writes with passion and close observation about the sights and sounds of Africa…once you’ve started reading it you will certainly keep turning the pages. – The Daily Express
- There is a reason Smith is a hugely popular writer of historical novels: his remarkable talent for re-creating historical periods and crafting characters we care about is virtually unmatched in the genre. Smith’s novels of the Courtney and Ballantyne families
have been entertaining readers for nearly five decades, and if this novel is any indication, he is showing no signs of slowing down.
– The American Library Association's Booklist magazine - Smith manages to serve up adventure, history and melodrama in one thrilling package that will be eagerly devoured by series fans.
– Publishers Weekly
- 'Wilbur Smith is an adept at thrilling and harrowing scenes, researches his facts, gets it all too horribly spot-on. Terribly competent ...'
– The Sunday Times - 'A thundering good read is virtually the only way of describing Wilbur Smith`s books.' – The Irish Times
Text excerpt
›› Read an excerpt from Assegai.
To buy
Please visit your favourite bookstore or online bookseller. If you are having difficulty finding a copy, you'll find information on publishers in many countries and many languages on the 'Links to Publishers' page.
