The Fire in His Wake

The Fire in His Wake, Spencer Wolff’s debut novel, recounts the journey of Ares, a Congolese refugee left for dead in the wake of ethnic violence. Part sweeping portrait of life in the Maghreb, part epic tale of hope and perseverance, Ares’ fate, like the fate of millions, sends him on a kinetic flight across northern Africa with Europe as his goal. He reaches Rabat, Morocco, where he binds himself to a desperate community of exiles, and meets Simon, a young, UN worker, whose journey is altogether different but no less fraught. While Ares struggles to find a way forward and come to terms with his past, Simon gradually awakens to the bitter contradictions of his work at the UN. Their challenges, told in Wolff’s clear, lively prose, carry the reader from the inner halls of the UN to the hazardous realities faced by the refugees in the streets and on their risky crossings to Europe. When a storm gathers at the UNHCR, and the ghosts of the Congo’s violence unexpectedly surface in Rabat, the two men find themselves on a collision course, setting the stage for the novel’s unforgettable and genre-busting ending.