Microcosmia

Microcosmia pursues offbeat protagonist Cristian Vane,
an emotionally troubled young liberal who’s just come into
the staggering Vane fortune.
With his newfound wealth and responsibility,
Vane sets out to put his cosseted life back together,
but a series of gut-wrenching misadventures in the real world
produce a complete nervous breakdown.

The young heir surfaces with a fresh perspective:
wealth is wasted on the wealthy;
his bequest is a golden opportunity
to do something magnificent in a heartless world.
Sickened by a documentary featuring scammed Ethiopian famine victims,
he heads for Africa to build his utopia.
Although Vane’s misplaced magnanimity
results in East-West friction and internal rivalries,
he still manages to create his magnum opus, even as cutthroat pirates,
a vile Eritrean colonel, and a doomed affair with a gorgeous,
control-freak journalist push him over the edge.
The tale concludes with an overwhelming Eritrean assault
after the mother of all desert locust plagues.

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