Drinking from the Stream

By: Richard Scott Sacks

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Paperback | 11 March 2025

At a Glance

Paperback
326 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.86 x 15.24 x 1.85

Paperback

$37.35

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Part action-adventure novel, part political thriller based on historical facts, Drinking from the Stream is set during 1971 and 1972, a time of violent upheaval when the Vietnam War and the Chinese Cultural Revolution marked a generation. The action leapfrogs from Louisiana to London, Paris, and Tanzania in a coming-of-age tale of international youth colliding with post-independence Africa.

Jake Ries, a twenty-two-year-old Nebraska farm boy turned oil roughneck, turns fugitive when he unintentionally kills a homicidal White supremacist on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. On the run, he meets Karl Appel, a restless Oxford dropout and former anti-war activist struggling with his own personal demons. Together they throw caution to the wind and plunge into the Ethiopian and East African hinterland, where they discover that dictatorship and mass murder are facts of life.

Industry Reviews

"A chance meeting turns two unlikely friends, Jake and Karl, into fast travel companions on an escapade across East Africa. As they seek new adventures and run from themselves, they land headlong in the middle of Burundi's 1972 genocide. From vibrant markets teeming with color and life, the adventurers are soon caught up in a violent race war, chronicling the terror of death squads and mass executions. Sacks takes you through gut-wrenching twists and turns with muscular prose that will keep you turning the pages to the end."-Sara Gay Forden, author of House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour and Greed

"I respect this powerful narrative of bold adventure and personal discovery of a generation 'roughing it' through Africa and escaping death and captivity armed only with their wits, tenacity, and deep friendships."-Andrew Robert Young, former US ambassador to Burkina Faso

"Journey with Jake and Karl as their adventures lead them deep into the perilous, turbulent world of revolutionary East Africa. . . . Gripping."-Bob Dorgan, USN veteran, author of Sea Pay: An Enlisted Man's Naval Adventure

"A great story set in a fresh locale. Enjoy it!"-R. M. Koster, National Book Award nominee

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