About the Book

Suspended in Vast Plain

Author: Stan Kasprzyk

Who am I going to be? Where in the world will I settle down? The journey into the future covers two years, from 1983 to 1985, as a young man who escapes native Poland in political turmoil and economic disaster in the heat of the Cold War to become a lecturer at FUTY, a fledgling university in Yola, a remote town in Nigeria. Vivid images of West Africa, the hardships of life in the “white man’s graveyard”, dealings within a small international faculty and with the “nomads” from Poland and countries of the West are the backdrop for the story. Obstacles pile up: bringing family from Poland; the military coup in Nigeria; bloody Islamist riots in town; possible shutdown of FUTY; the near-death of a friend. Anxiety and doldrums linger. Finally, the idea of “the second leap” gets a chance to come of age. However, its implementation is not without hurdles, and the departure from Yola is not without adventures.