Summary

The novel begins with an untitled prologue, narrated in the plural first person (these narrators are later revealed to be a swarm of mosquitos). This prologue describes Dr. Livingstone’s search for the source of the Nile, leading to his accidental so-called discovery of the waterfall he named Victoria Falls, and the later colonization of what came to be known as Zambia.

After this, the chapter entitled “The Falls” begins. Most of the chapter is narrated in the singular first person by Percy Clark, a British man who goes to Rhodesia (the early colonial name for Zambia, after the colonizer Cecil Rhodes) to explore. He starts at the Old Drift, the small settler village on one side of the Zambezi river named after the area of the river where it is possible to cross. Percy goes up the river to explore. Eventually...