Prester John

On a remote Scottish beach as night falls, three boys witness something they should not have seen: John Laputa, a visiting African preacher, performing un-Christian rites around a bonfire. The boys flee for their lives. Years later, when David Crawfurd's father dies and forces him to quit college, he wanders to South Africa and finds himself assistant shopkeeper in a dusty back-veldt store. There he encounters Laputa again, now transformed into a charismatic revolutionary leader preaching \"Africa for the Africans\" and claiming to be heir to Prester John, the legendary medieval Christian king of Ethiopia. A native uprising brews. David must infiltrate Laputa's movement, outwit a cunning adversary, and decide where his loyalties truly lie. Buchan crafts a ripping adventure that also functions as a sly commentary on empire, faith, and the collision of worlds.