A complicated war

In 1988 William Finnegan journeyed into Mozambique, a country that had already been at war for years, to see how the conflict was reaching ordinary people. He shows why this struggle, shaped and often directed by South Africa, draws so little notice abroad. The book is a reporter's account of the war's effects on the countryside, where hardship is severe and where the fighting itself helps keep that hardship going.

Alongside these scenes, Finnegan provides the nation's historical background and a critical look at the Frelimo government, questioning why its policies have failed to build a system that includes all of Mozambique's people.

His central conclusion is that the peasants of Mozambique have been cut off from the rewards of peace, first under centuries of Portuguese rule and later by a war that threatens whatever future they might have.