Find out the latest indie author news. For FREE.

ADVERTISEMENT

Formats
Paperback Details
  • 01/2015
  • 9781503529946
  • 228 pages
  • $13.99
Hardcover Details
  • 01/2015
  • 9781503529953
  • 228 pages
  • $19.99
Ebook Details
  • 01/2015
  • 9781503530300
  • 231 pages
  • $3.99
David Hartness
Author
Amani's River
Amani’s River follows ten-year-old Aderito has been brought from the United States to the banks of a beautiful river in Homoine, Mozambique. There, he befriends a young girl named Victoria, and for a brief time, their childhood is promising. Soon, the violence that is raging across the country makes its way to Aderito’s doorstep, and both children are abducted by rebels and forced to learn the ways of trained killers in a war they barely understand. With only each other for support, Victoria and Aderito struggle to remain unnoticed among their peers. But the more Aderito kills, the more he needs killing, channeling all his rage into war and becoming a valuable weapon. Victoria, growing older and prettier by the day, begins to attract unwanted attention from their captors. Caught in a battle that ravages villages and tears families apart, Aderito knows he cannot expect a happy ending. And yet he and Victoria make brave plans to escape—only to find themselves facing torments that no adult, let alone child, should ever have to face. As Mozambique struggles through its defining crisis, Aderito too must find a way to survive the childhood that will come to define him as a man.
Reviews
Reviewed By Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers’ Favorite

Review Rating:5 stars! 

Amani’s River by David Hartness is a historical fiction novel. Aderito is just 10 years old when he finds himself on the banks of the river in Mozambique. He meets Victoria and the two become good friends, enjoying their childhood together and looking forward to a promising future. All too soon, it comes to an end as both children find themselves embroiled in the violent war that is raging across Mozambique when they are abducted. Forced to train as killers, they turn to each other and try to stay out of the way. Unfortunately, Victoria is growing up and starts to attract the kind of attention she doesn’t want, and Aderito has got the taste of blood and killing. They try to escape and make a life for themselves elsewhere, but will the crisis in Mozambique defeat them? Can they survive when the odds are stacked against them?

Amani’s River by David Hartness is a powerful novel, grounded in true historical fact with a tale woven around them. It’s a gripping story that I was caught up in, not stopping until I had fought the battle alongside Victoria and Aderito. I promise any reader that you will get caught, the same as I did, in a whirlwind of emotion as you make your way through the story. If that was the intention of David Hartness, then he has done his job and done it well. Thoroughly enjoyed this amazing story and I hope there is more where this came from.

 

~Anne-Marie Reynolds~

Reviewed By Cheryl E. Rodriguez for Readers’ Favorite

Review Rating: 5 stars!

David Hartness’ Amani’s River is an emotionally charged, gut wrenching work of fiction. Sitting on the banks of a river outside the small village of Homoine, Mozambique, Aderito’s mind drifts as he listens to the tranquil sounds. With his mother’s ashes in his hands, Aderito shares the nightmare of his childhood with his wife and son. Until the age of ten, Aderito lived in Houston, Texas. But, his father felt the need to return to his homeland of Mozambique. Moving and living in Mozambique was a huge culture shock, unknowns engulfed Aderito. After a few months, Aderito met a young girl, Victoria. They become the best of friends. One day as they were playing at the river, the RENAMO arrived and brutally abducted them. Victoria was repeatedly raped into submission and Aderito was savagely trained to be a soldier. The only way to please his captors was to mindlessly kill. Days turned into years, his memories faded, he realized he has lost his soul. Escape was suicide. Yet, there is a yearning within, the voice of hope faintly calls, and Aderito finds himself “running toward immemorial memory.” A place of peace, peace like a river... Amani’s River.

David Hartness has spent most of his adult life living in Africa. While in the Peace Corps, he was an education volunteer in Mozambique. He immersed himself in their culture and in return they captured his heart and soul. Amani’s River is written in first person narrative, therefore, as the reader, you hear the story through Aderito’s character. This writing technique places you in the setting as the story unfolds. Your heart pounds with fear, stops with acts of cruelty, and aches for the burdens of the characters. The novel is very well written. The plot flows with an element of anxiousness, fearful apprehension. Hartness vividly exposes the harsh realities and brutality of war. The character development is intensely graphic, page after page reveals the transformation of a young boy into a brainwashed child soldier. The story is gripping, revealing the truth – “no winners could be declared in war!" I have close friends who are missionaries in Mozambique. They, too, desire to give their lives for the people of Mozambique, to make a contribution, hoping to bring hope to the next generation.

 

~Cheryl E. Rodriguez~

Reviewed By Heather Osborne for Readers’ Favorite

Review Rating: 5 stars!

Amani’s River by David Hartness is a vivid fictional account of one boy’s heartbreaking journey as a child soldier in Mozambique. Aderito Chirindza’s father uproots his family from the States and takes them to Mozambique to help serve in the hospital there. The country is in the midst of a bitter civil war and innocent civilians are being subjected to brutal raids. These raids often lead to mutilation and death of the people. Aderito is unhappy in his new home, but nothing prepares him for his horrific capture by a rebel group. He, along with a new found friend, Victoria, are forced into terrible conditions and made to fight. Although Aderito tries to protect Victoria, he is finding himself more and more brainwashed by the cause of the rebels and the lust for killing. Will he manage to make it back to his family alive or will the rebel cause consume him?

Mr. Hartness’ novel is not for the faint of heart. I was ill-prepared for the graphic description and account of Aderito’s life as a child soldier. The content shocked me. As a topic little discussed, I was glad to see a book shed light on such atrocities. I felt the entire novel was profoundly moving and heartbreaking at the same time. As hard as it was to read, Mr. Hartness did not sugar-coat the truth in any way. Amani’s River brings to light some very real issues in Africa and makes the reader pause to consider the realities of life for some of these child soldiers.

 

~Heather Osborne~

News
02/18/2015
Vashon native writes novel about child soldiers

David Hartness recently published his new book, “Amani’s River.”

When David Hartness graduated from Vashon High School in 2001, he worked for three months as a volunteer teaching English in a small rural village in Kenya. Now, nine years later and based on seven years of experience living in Africa, Hartness has published a novel set in Mozambique. Called “Amani’s River,” the book is currently available at the Vashon Bookshop.

In a phone interview from his home in Lusaka, Zambia, Hartness, 32, recalled becoming intrigued by the culture and continent of Africa through a McMurray Middle School humanities teacher who had once lived there. But it was his own sojourn to Kenya that turned infatuation into commitment.

In his blog, “A Small Perspective,” Hartness describes himself as “an idiot abroad” on that first visit, not understanding the social norms of Kenya and finding the new culture to be “vast, abnormal and scary.” The mud huts in the village where he lived and taught English had no running water and no electricity, but Hartness soon found himself falling in love with the culture and the locals’ understanding of community.

“It was something unique and interesting,” he said. “The people were so welcoming. They would invite you into their home for a cup of tea, provide a meal for a homeless woman.”

Hartness blogs that every community member had a responsibility to raise the children, a responsibility to take care of the elderly and to share with each other what they had to offer.

After college, Hartness served three years in the U.S. Peace Corps as an education volunteer and AIDS worker in Namaacha, Mozambique. What he learned while stationed in Namaacha spurred Hartness to write “Amani’s River.”

“If you go there, you may not realize that the people lived through a bloody, 16-year civil war that ended within the last two decades. Bullets were still in buildings, and there are people maimed from the war. It’s incredible to see the remnants, yet it is such a peaceful country,” he said.

Stories about child soldiers who were brutally inducted into the war against their will — by both the government and the rebel forces — and made to commit heinous acts of terror deeply affected Hartness. His aspiration for the book is to raise awareness about child soldiers around the world who continue to suffer equally horrific fates.

“I hope the book is an eye-opener and people will keep in mind that there are still 250,000 children serving as child soldiers,” he said. “As a global issue it is not new, but it needs to be discussed. Not enough is being done to eradicate the problem. I wrote ‘Amani’s River’ in hopes that it would shed light on the issue and force social change.”

“Amani’s River” tells the story of a 10-year-old American boy whose parents return to their native Mozambique to live on the banks of a beautiful river. The family settles in, but soon violence breaks out. The boy, Aderito, is abducted by rebels and forced to become a trained killer.

The scenes are graphic and disturbing, but Hartness said that while the character is fictional, the story is based on events that happened during the war. In a blog post Hartness writes:

“I befriended people with cut-off limbs, scars on their faces and aches in their body, directly related to the brutal war that tore families apart and left a country to rebuild ... I (also) wanted to depict the raw emotions, pain and brutal realities of the many lives currently affected by war.”

Hartness said he chose to make the main character American as he wanted his target audience — Americans — to relate to the boy and to the idea that any child can be affected by war anywhere around the globe.

While Hartness plans to return to Vashon this summer to do a reading from his new book, he is content to make Africa his home for now. He and his son live in Lusaka, where Hartness works for an international school teaching English and literature.

As for what might be coming down the publishing pipeline, the author said his next book may take on other social issues. His underlying motivation is to try to help change minds through fiction. And when he’s not doing that through novels, he’s working on affecting perspectives through his blog.

“What you think you know about Africa, think again,” Hartness writes. “We often see only the negative part of Africa, and we have very strong images of this place, full of violence, full of hatred, full of political unrest, but I see the culture of Africa as peaceful. A place that has their moments of violence, and problems, but people that care for one another."

Formats
Paperback Details
  • 01/2015
  • 9781503529946
  • 228 pages
  • $13.99
Hardcover Details
  • 01/2015
  • 9781503529953
  • 228 pages
  • $19.99
Ebook Details
  • 01/2015
  • 9781503530300
  • 231 pages
  • $3.99
ADVERTISEMENT

Loading...