A Time to Die (Smith novel)
1989 novel by Wilbur Smith
A Time to Die is a 1989 novel by Wilbur Smith. 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."
The story line had some similarities to Smith's screenplay The Last Lion (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.
Caught up in the Mozambican Civil War 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.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “A Time to Die (Smith novel)” is 1989 novel by Wilbur Smith. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Time, Smith and novel, not as a finished interpretation.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3819798. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1989, 1987 and 1972.
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This entry incorporates text from “A Time to Die (Smith novel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.