''A Time to Die'' is a 1989 novel by

Wilbur Smith Wilbur Addison Smith (9 January 1933 – 13 November 2021) was a Zambian-born British-South African novelist specialising in historical fiction about international involvement in Southern Africa across four centuries, seen from the viewpoints ...

. Set in 1987, it is chronologically the last of the 13 Courtney Novels. Smith did not regard it strictly as a Courtney novel, however, claiming "it's just got a Courtney name in it. It's not in the mainstream of the series.""An Interview with Wilbur Smith", 1989
. Retrieved 21 March 2013. The story line had some similarities to Smith's screenplay ''

The Last Lion ''The Last Lion'' is a 1972 South African action film directed by Elmo De Witt and starring Jack Hawkins, Karen Spies and Dawid Van Der Walt. The screenplay was written by Wilbur Smith, one of his rare original screenplays. He used a similar ...

'' (1972).

Plot

Set against the majesty of the African landscape, its great plains, swamplands, forests and mountains, A Time to Die is a story of courage and friendship, the thrill of the hunt, the savagery of war and the saving power of love. Retired guerrilla fighter Sean Courtney is over forty years old and facing the possibility of losing his professional hunting licence. His long-time friend and client Riccardo Monterro is approaching sixty and is hunting with Sean on his last safari accompanied by his beautiful twenty-six-year-old daughter Claudia. Hunting Tukutela, a grand old bull tusker who carries possibly the heaviest set of ivory in all of Africa the three of them along with an entourage of black trackers and gun bearers tenaciously follow the old bull across the border into war torn

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. Caught up in the

Mozambican Civil War The Mozambican Civil War ( pt, Guerra Civil Moçambicana) was a civil war fought in Mozambique from 1977 to 1992. Like many regional African conflicts during the late twentieth century, the Mozambican Civil War possessed local dynamics but was a ...

Sean encounters one of his bitterest enemies from his guerrilla days and finds himself and his friends in a desperate struggle for survival. Amidst the horrors of war he falls in love with young Claudia and she likewise falls in love with him, but the trick is to get out of Mozambique alive so that they can enjoy their newfound love.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Time to Die Novels by Wilbur Smith 1989 British novels Heinemann (publisher) books Novels set in Mozambique Fiction set in 1987