The red bird

"A novel about the failure of people’s hopes, dreams, ambitions and utopias. Driven by economics, curiosity and ignorance, a group of habitués of The Empty Room, a New York pub, decide to leave the States to try an experiment in the Sahel in search of an earthly paradise. Having set up a trading post and motel in the desert, their friendships begin to fall dramatically apart in a quest for power until murder ensues"--Page [4] of cover.