The Network Journal Communications Inc., publisher of The Network Journal magazine, published The Guyana Contract, the latest international thriller by its executive editor, Rosalind McLymont. It is the second book written by McLymont that TNJ has published. In 2009, the company published Africa Strictly Business, The Steady March to Prosperity, a selection of McLymont?s ?Africa Focus? columns from The Network Journal and her features on Trade With Africa written for The Journal Of Commerce.
The release of The Guyana Contract comes as the South American nation embarks on an historic shift in its governance, raising the question of who really is responsible for shaping such small developing countries.
?I wanted to write a book that brings Guyana into the global conversation on emerging markets in a serious but also entertaining way. There is so much to appreciate about developing countries like Guyana?their people, their culture, their struggle to affirm their place in the family of nations,? says McLymont. ?Equally important, there is much to explore with respect to how multinational corporations and their executives engage with those countries in business and investment dealings, which I also do in The Guyana Contract.???
The plot unfolds in Europe, North America and South America, reflecting McLymont?s experiences on all three continents. The book boasts a strong female protagonist, Drucilla Durane, who takes her first name from McLymont?s maternal great aunt.
After graduating from college and before pursuing her career, Drucilla Durane embarks on a European excursion. She begins with little more than street smarts and a Eurail pass, and it all goes smoothly until her arrival in France. After being shown around Marseille by a handsome young French-American named Theron St. Cyr, she continues to Paris, where she finds herself in a harrowing situation. Thinking St. Cyr is to blame, she vows never to forget him. Fast-forward several years: Drucilla works for Pilgrim, Boone and Associates, an influential U.S. consulting firm that seeks out only the most lucrative contracts in developing nations. As the only black female in the company?s upper echelon, Drucilla considers her race and gender to be both a liability and an asset. Working on a case concerning air transport in Guyana, Drucilla finds herself embroiled in an affair of dirty dealings that, without prior warning, just so happens to involve St. Cyr.
?Part business caper, part exploration of the challenges facing a black female executive, the compelling premise of a character like Drucilla as a nation-shaper in a place like Guyana is well-planned,? says a Kirkus Review of The Guyana Contract. ?The narrative seamlessly weaves information about Guyana into the story, allowing the average reader to walk away having learned something about the place.?
Indeed, McLymont delivers authoritatively on a host of present-day realities: corporate politics, including the C-suite?s struggle with recruiting and retaining diverse talent; the complexities of foreign investment in developing countries and life in these countries; the frustrations of entrepreneurship; biases within the black community; and the scourges of human and drug trafficking.
?TNJ is honored and very proud to publish our executive editor?s latest book. Rosalind takes us to another level as publishers,? says TNJ founder, publisher and CEO Aziz Gueye Adetimirin. ?Although The Guyana Contract is a novel, it speaks to a number of subjects that resonate with our target market of black professionals and business owners, such as the recruitment and retention of black professionals by major corporations, corporate careers for blacks in the global arena, entrepreneurship, and interactions among various peoples of African descent.????
Born in Guyana, McLymont uses her maiden name, Kilkenny, as part of her pen name ?to honor my parents who did so much to make me who I am,? she says.
She joined TNJ in 2003, after leaving her position as managing editor-international trade at The Journal of Commerce (Knight Ridder; Economist Group), where she worked for 13 years. In addition to The Guyana Contract, she is the author of the groundbreaking ?rebranding Africa? novel, Middle Ground (Beckham 2005). She also is the CEO and publisher of AfricaStrictlyBusiness.com, a fitness instructor, and a partner with her husband in McLymont, Kunda & Co., an international business strategy firm.
?
?God gave me a brain and talent and I intend to use up every ounce of both while I am alive. When I meet him, or her, face to face, I want to be able to say, ?I used them all up on Earth, God. I brought nothing back,?? she says. ?What good would human brain and talent be then, anyway???
McLymont is a graduate of The City College of New York and New York University, and earned a Certificate in Spanish Language and Literature at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. A past European Union Fellow, she taught for several years in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo; served as an entrepreneurship development expert for the United Nations Development Program?s Africa Bureau; worked with women entrepreneurs in Russia through the Alliance of Russian and American Women; and served two terms on the Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Her numerous professional and community service awards include Guyana?s 2015 Golden Arrowhead Award of Achievement and Distinction.
The Guyana Contract
By Rosalind Kilkenny McLymont
Publisher: The Network Journal Communication Inc.
ISBN: 978-0-57815-916-4
Paperback, $19.95; 384 pages
e-book, $7.99
?
?
