Beyond The River Yei is about a Kenyan writer commissioned to write about an issue - sleeping sickness in Southern Sudan . What he discovers is a fierce kinship he did not expect. It is also a heartrending story about a returning doctor, poet and humanist who exposes the heart of his people, the Kakwa of Yei County ; their well and woe. And a mighty river runs through it. The photographs show lives of quiet dignity how humanity triumphs over the perversion of war and disease.

Sven Torfinn throws out the rule book on conflict photography. What is most visible in his photo essay is his choice in depicting human beings, not as symbols of devastation, but as the light in a heart of the proverbial darkness. It is time that artists stop compromising the humanity of Africans to score humanitarian points. Unflinchingly personal, this book uses poetry, photographs, reportage and fiction in an unsettling and tender homage to South Sudan .