The Atlas of Forgotten Places

May 29, 2017
Gritty and intricately plotted, Williams’ debut novel, set in the war-torn Uganda of 2008, gets under the surface of recent political turmoil and the relationship between East Africa and Western aid organizations. Alternating chapters follow Sabine, a former aid worker who has returned to Uganda from Germany to look for her missing niece, Lily, and Rose, an Acholi woman who has a past with Lord’s Resistance Army and bears physical and emotional scars from her war experiences. When it turns out that Rose’s lover Ocen has disappeared with Lily, she and Sabine form an unlikely rescue group, accompanied by Christoph, a cultural anthropologist studying in Rose’s town. Their search will bring them into dangerous territory where a surprise military offensive against the LRA has recently forced the rebels from hiding. In the midst of struggles and atrocities so large and all-encompassing, the narrative sometimes gets away from the more interesting personal stories. But overall Williams’s book paints the contours of the real-life conflict admirably, making the thrilling disappearance story relatable with nuanced characterizations and a wealth of strong subplots concerning reclaiming love, protecting family, and guarding hope for a new future when the present seems to be teetering on disaster. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff & Associates.

May 1, 2017
A young woman, fresh from half a year as an aid worker in Uganda, steps into the darkness of an early December morning and vanishes.Just 22 years old, Lily Bennett had followed in her Aunt Sabine's footsteps. Sabine, too, had traveled to Africa, working at various NGOs for 18 years. Now home in Germany, working for an animal shelter, Sabine receives a troubling call from Lily's stepfather, who reports that Lily missed her flight home. Lily is lost. Knowing that the local police will be understaffed and undermotivated to investigate the possibly voluntary disappearance of an adult American, Sabine sets off to search for Lily herself. In Uganda, Sabine joins forces with Christoph, a Swiss cultural anthropologist, and his assistant, Rose Akulu, a Ugandan woman whose lover, Ocen, has also disappeared. Their investigation swiftly turns dangerous, however, as Sabine learns that Lily may have tried to intervene in the illegal ivory trade conducted by Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, the rebel group at war with Uganda's government and feared for turning the kidnapped into child soldiers and wives. Worse, it seems that Ocen may have accompanied Lily on her quest. Rose knows the dangers they are walking into, because years ago she survived--minus her right arm--being abducted into the LRA. Yet she can't let slip the opportunity to rescue Ocen's twin brother, Opiyo, the one she loved first. Traveling back into Kony's realm, however, will cost far more than anyone anticipated. In this, her debut novel, Williams skillfully sketches the emotionally ravaged remains of Rose's life, a life ruined by not only physical mutilation, but also social rejection; even her brother calls her a "rebel whore," blaming her for her own abduction. Entwining Rose's journey with Sabine's, Williams underscores the international scope of Uganda's plight. Politics exact a devastating personal price in this harrowing journey.

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June 1, 2017
Williams' compelling debut novel is primarily set in modern-day Uganda, with side trips to Germany and Colorado and a heart-stopping conclusion in the Congo. The book opens with young Lily in the quiet of Kitgum, in Uganda's predawn, preparing for a mysterious journey. When she does not get off the plane in Denver on Christmas Eve, her stepfather calls on her aunt Sabine for help. Sabine is an old Africa hand who rushes off to Uganda to find Lily, fearing the worst. Meanwhile, in Kitgum, Ocen has been out of touch, and Rose, his fiancee, becomes anxious. Rose, a survivor of the Lord's Resistance Army, joins forces with Sabine. Williams' novel progresses in sections that alternate between Rose and Sabine's points of view. Each of these two strong women strives to save the person she loves while battling regret and struggling with the burden of secrets. Along the way, youthful idealism and love are confronted by the persistent and poisonous legacy of violence that plays out against the vivid backdrop of Africa's brutal civil wars and captivating natural beauty.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)