"The parched terrain of Central Africa is the locale of The Day of Creation. Dr. Mallory has come to the small town of Port-la-Nouvelle to run a WHO clinic, but the surges and countersurges of guerrilla and paramilitary activity in this forgotten and lawless zone have left him without patients. He dreams, instead, of bringing water to the region, of discovering a third Nile that will make the Sahara bloom.

"This is Ballard at his most tantalizing. Reminiscent of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Paul Theroux's Mosquito Coast, it represents a startling blend of adventure and meditative fiction."

• comment from dust jacket of 1998 FSG edition