A spellbinding account of an artist’s unconventional journey through West Africa to overcome a debilitating illness—and to find the true source of his pain.

“Compelling reading…a work that often has a captivating sense of immediacy.”
— Kirkus Reviews

Somewhere in Africa, the blacksmith’s widow is rumored to still be alive. And her dark magic is Dave’s last hope of ending a twenty-year curse. If only he can find her.

Deep in Africa, there is a power as old as the Earth. This is a land where ancestors walk among the living and impish spirits dwell in the forest. Occult knowledge is guarded by secret societies, and blacksmiths carve sacred masks that invoke deities. Here, art is magic.

An ocean away, Dave is a struggling artist who longs for adventure. When fate brings him to West Africa, his dream becomes a reality, and he’s drawn into a world of ritual drumming and vodoun magic. But the dream becomes a nightmare.

The illness comes on violently. As Dave convulses in pain, the villagers call it a curse, suspecting sorcery. At first, Dave’s not so sure. Back in America, his doctors lead him down a dangerous road of opioid painkillers, but the condition worsens. As the years go by, Dave’s suspicions deepen. Was it really a curse that beset him all those years ago?

Facing a life of disability, Dave’s final quest brings him back to Africa. To find the source, he must question everything he thinks he knows, and put his trust in the words of a shaman and in spiritual forces he’s not sure exist. But in the end, it’s his own demons he must confront, before the curse finally destroys him.