The Dung Beetles of Liberia

Liberia’s oligarchy: The beginning of the end.

2019 Grand Prize Winner - Red City Review

Based on the remarkable true account of a young American who landed in Liberia in 1961.

The story weaves drama, dark comedy, and romance throughout a rich tapestry of narration - The San Francisco Book Review

KEN VERRIER IS NOT HAPPY, NOR AT PEACE. He is experiencing the turbulence of Ishmael and the guilt of his brother's death. His sudden decision to drop out of college and deal with his demons shocks his family, his friends, and especially his girlfriend, soon to have been his fiancee. His destination: Liberia - The richest country in Africa both in monetary wealth and in natural resources.

NOTHING COULD HAVE PREPARED HIM FOR THE EXPERIENCES HE WAS ABOUT TO LIVE THROUGH. Ken quickly realizes that he has arrived in a place where he understands very little of what is considered normal, where the dignity of life has little meaning, and where he can trust no one.

Flying into the interior bush as a transport pilot, Ken learns quickly. He witnesses, first-hand, the disparate lives of the Liberian "Country People? and the "Congo People" also known as Americo-Liberians. These descendants of President Monroe's American Colonization Policy that sent freed slaves back to Africa in the 1800's have set up a strict hierarchical society not unlike the antebellum South.

Author Dan Meier describes Ken's many escapades, spanning from horrifying to whimsical, with engaging and fast-moving narrative that ultimately describes a society upon which the wealthy are feeding and in which the poor are being buried.

It's a novel that will stay with you long after the last word has been read.