A political thriller about strong-minded women and men, The Dark Path to the River tells a love story that moves between Wall Street and Africa.

Particularly successful in building suspense . . . Sensitive and ambitious. -The New York Times Book Review

I haven't enjoyed a book so much in a long time. . . . There are books you keep reading because you are convinced that they are well-written and thematically rich, etc., and then there are the books that are all those things and also you can't put them down. The Dark Path to the River fell in the latter category for me. I fell in love with Olivia and Jenny . . . and just altogether was taken in. That doesn't happen to me often, and I appreciate it a lot. I didn't want the pleasure to end. I'm so glad I have your other novels to look forward to. -Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible

A knockout of a novel-impressive in its scope but at the same time intimate and personal . . . An extraordinary book. -Elisabeth Forsythe Hailey, A Woman of Independent Means

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman knows suspense like Hitchcock. . . . But what distinguishes the novel is its characters. . . . [They] give this fine novel its power. -Washington Post

A book that provokes thought and is most entertaining to read. -Los Angeles Times

The story's power comes from its daring and imaginative scope, its sense of humanity and human connectedness across . . . the 'small' events of life and the larger events which come to be called history. -The Dallas Morning News

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman is a novelist, short story writer, and journalist. Her works of fiction include The Dark Path to the River and No Marble Angels. She has also published fiction and essays in books and anthologies, including Short Stories of the Civil Rights Movement; Remembering Arthur Miller; Electric Grace; Snakes: An Anthology of Serpent Tales; Beyond Literacy; Women For All Seasons; Fiction and Poetry by Texas Women; The Bicentennial Collection of Texas Short Stories; What You Can Do.

As a reporter for The Christian Science Monitor early in her career, Joanne won awards for her nonfiction and has published hundreds of articles in newspapers and magazines. She has taught writing at New York University, City University of New York, Occidental College, and the University of California at Los Angeles extension. She holds a Master of Arts degree from both Brown University and Johns Hopkins University, and graduated cum laude from Principia College.

Joanne is a Vice President of PEN International and the former International Secretary of PEN International and former Chair of PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee. She currently serves on the boards of PEN American Center, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, Poets and Writers, the International Center for Journalists, the International Crisis Group, and Refugees International. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Johns Hopkins University, trustee emeritus of Brown University, and director emeritus of Human Rights Watch. She has served on the Board of Trustees of Save the Children and on Save the Children's Advisory Board on Global Education.

A member of the Advisory Board of the United States Institute of Peace, Joanne was an adviser on the PBS documentary A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, PEN American Center, PEN USA, English PEN, and the Authors Guild.

Joanne is married and has two sons.