DAY OF CREATION

At Port-la-Nouvelle, on the parched terrain of central Africa, Dr. Mallorywatches as his clinic fails and dreams of discovering a third Nile thatwill make the Sahara bloom. When there is a trickle on the Local airstrip,and soon a river, the obsessed MaLLory claims it as his own creation.Joined by Noon, a silent adolescent girl who as a child ran with the localguerrillas; Professor Sanger, a documentary filmmaker with a fadingreputation; and Nora Warrender, the widow of a Rhodesian veterinarysurgeon, the remains of whose menagerie flourish exotically amid theland's new fertility, Mallory sets out for the river's source.