by Joanna Crispi

208 Pages, 5½ x 8½

Library of Congress Control Number:  2009927388

ISBN:  978-1-935520-00-9

Publication Date:  05/15/2009

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The Congo is in civil war and Brazzaville is under siege. During a mission to evacuate French nationals, Lt. Vincent Chavanne is separated from his unit and left for dead. Soldier in the Grass records his journey with the woman who saves his life as they escape across the country to the safety of the ocean port, Pointe-Noire. Adversity strips them of their defenses. Cut off from the rest of the world, overwhelmed by violence and fear, they find something that transcends suffering, hatred and superstition—devotion to one another.

Recommendations

What an overwhelmingly heartfelt powerful story this is—heroic episodic Saga which records the dreadful ordeal of realization of two lost and lonely souls who find each other in the blazing heat of Africa as they journey towards their ultimate destination.

—William Packard

This modern love story unfolds along a river as turbulent as its history, and peaceful as their emotions, in a place of brutality and violence for its past of tribal warfare and its present of ethnic violence and massacres. The link between their love and the human suffering around them is incredibly direct. Joanna Crispi brings a sense of urgency to facts of such heinous proportions as if they were happening in our own backyard. We can smell the surrounding rainforest, the mythical land of beasts and dreadful plagues. The story widens and picks up speed until it enters the Gates of Hell and emerges surrounded by a lush tropical landscape, tranquil and safe until it slows to a dramatic stand-still. A must read!

—Salvatore Moltisanti, IBLA Foundation