James Bray, an English colonial administrator who was expelled from a central African nation for siding with its black nationalist leaders, is invited back ten years later to join in the country's independence celebrations. As he witnesses the factionalism and violence that erupt as revolutionary ideals are subverted by ambition and greed, Bray is once again forced to choose sides, a choice that becomes both his triumph and his undoing. This collection of essays, articles, critiques and addresses extends over four decades, and includes the author's Nobel Prize lecture of 1991. Her themes are wide-ranging, moving from the impact of technology on our world-view to the convergence of the moral and the political in fiction.