A Scotsman narrates our story Bentari. This choice was easy since my family shares Scottish heritage; and how does one include a Scot in an African tale, after all, if he isn’t telling it? His name is Max Farleigh and he lost an arm at the Battle of Narvik during the dark early days of World War II. Since he couldn’t fight the Germans in his condition, hate was at home in his heart. So Max went to Africa to help his ailing uncle, and there he tries to rid himself of wrath. As Max tells the story, it’s clear that he succeeded—taught by a boy who suffered great loss yet somehow held the hatred of his enemies at bay.

Max Farleigh introduces himself in Chapter 2 ("My Struggle"):

“I came here for many reasons. For one, my uncle’s health was failing, and the trading post that he had established was more than he could handle alone. Secondly, I hoped that the tropical climate would be easier on my stump than the cold, moist air of my Scottish highland home. My left arm, you see, was a casualty of the Germans. I was there in Narvik in the spring of 1940 when the B.E.F. routed the German invaders out of northern Norway. It went for naught, however. The Germans held all of southern Norway. Soon, their superior air power sent us scurrying back to Britain. My arm stayed in Norway along with my peace of mind.”

Max tells the story of what happened when a German company’s secret patrol discovers the ancient untold wealth of Bentari’s tribe.

We are left to wonder: What should be done with the treasures of the earth? Who owns land? Who owns what lies within land? How are differences to be settled?

Bentari is forced the hard way to learn some answers of the brutality that occurs when men line up behind differing versions of what is right and then undertake to force their views on others.

Bentari is too young to comprehend it all. His father’s dying words exhort him to try, and he does try.

In the end of this story about Bentari’s early life, we hope that readers sense where a little boy finds himself. We hope that readers wonder along with the boy and say to the world about the warring ways of men: “There’s got to be a better way.”

Many a Scot is nothing if not a storyteller. Well, he might be a brawler, a poet, a dancer and a lover, too! But the heart of many a Scot will never stray from a closely felt kinship with the Bard of Ayrshire, Robert Burns. Max Farleigh is no exception.

Image: Leona, my grandmother—a link to our Scottish family history

Buy Bentari now for the Scot’s thrilling African story about a boy during wartime!