Inspired by a true story, two teens kidnapped by an African warlord find salvation through love in a powerful and healing historical novel from the #1 bestselling author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky and The Last Green Valley.
About the Book
Anthony Opoka and Florence Okori are coming of age in Uganda in the 1990s. Outstanding students, they believe in being good humans before they are kidnapped and forced into the fanatical Lord’s Resistance Army.
In a legion of young recruits, no one gets closer than Anthony to powerful messianic warlord Joseph Kony and his darkest secrets. To stay sane as he spirals through chaos, Anthony clings to his childhood lessons about being a good human. Florence’s upbringing grounds her, too, helping her keep her dreams alive even as she’s pulled deeper into the insanity of Kony’s war.
At the lowest points of their lives, certain they’ll never go home, Anthony and Florence meet by chance, fall in love, and begin to dream of surviving their captivity. They devote their lives to helping their fellow child soldiers escape bondage and return to their families and redemption by following the stars.
By turns tender, shocking, moving, desperate, and ultimately triumphant, Florence and Anthony’s story is an epic drama of humanity, a life-affirming tale, and an experience readers will never forget.
Praise
“Mark Sullivan’s All the Glimmering Stars is the pinnacle of an already distinguished career. A searing piece of historical fiction steeped in a yearslong deep dive into the horrors of child soldiering, it is at its core something tender and rare: a love story between two profoundly good people striving for light in unimaginable darkness. It is a joy and an inspiration.” —Gregg Hurwitz, New York Times bestselling author of the Orphan X series
“Set amid the harrowing chaos of Joseph Kony’s cultlike regime and his abducted children turned soldiers, an extraordinary narrative of love and unwavering resilience emerges. The intertwined journey of Anthony Opoka and Florence Okori stands as a luminous symbol of hope. Their love becomes a refuge, a testament to the human spirit’s endurance.” —Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
“All the Glimmering Stars is a searing tribute to the power of love and the endurance of the human spirit. You can’t look away from the harrowing survival story of Anthony and Florence Opoka. Mark Sullivan shows how the tiniest glint of hope can sustain us in life’s darkest moments. Masterful and moving.” —Robert Dugoni, bestselling author of The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell
Excerpt
To Come
Discussion Guide
to Come