Greetings and welcome to robinkirk.com!
I’m a writer, teacher and human rights advocate (rather than in order, I list these pursuits as overlapping and cross-pollinating). My writing includes journalism, poetry, fiction and essays. My Talking Rights blog is where I examine the issues of the day or things that my students and I are talking about or working on. Check out the syllabus page to see some of the human rights classes I’ve put together.
I joined the ebook craze by publishing my novel, The Tiger King, on Amazon. Check it out and tell me what you think!
THE TIGER KING explores the personal secrets and desires that can feed political violence and sabotage efforts to help others, through the eyes of aid workers, diamond smugglers, peacekeepers, guerrillas and war lords. The novel also reveals in surprising ways how human mercy can salve the deepest wounds. The most determined killers can be human; and the most admirable do-gooders have surprising and sometimes dangerous frailties. Colombian Ambassador Samuel Moreno is kidnapped by guerrillas even as his wife, a UN diplomat, must escape the violence of rebels in faraway Sierra Leone, assisted only by a courageous aid worker. Their stories intertwine, pitting faith against doubt, youthful excess against mature reckonings and the inevitable limitations of acts of humanity. Samuel discovers that his son may be a murderer while Siv, his wife, discovers that despite her wealth and academic credentials, she is a refugee, at the mercy of killers who even soldiers cannot stop. Samuel’s daughter links them both, trapped by a terrible secret that could mean all of their deaths. The international setting is complex and interconnected, giving equal weight to the elegance of Rome and the chaos of Freetown. Airplanes deposit first-class travelers in the comfort of agency board rooms or, with matching precision, the fetid chaos of a city at the mercy of religious fanatics. Set in a world of international aid workers, diplomats, peacekeepers, guerrillas and mercenaries, The Tiger King feels ripped from tomorrow’s headlines, part of a world often in the news but rarely described in fiction. Read an excerpt…
FINALIST, 2007 Novello Literary Award