Harare Review of Books

369 pages.

First published in 2013.

Finished reading on 11 Jun 2020.

Genre: Literary Fiction.

Publisher’s blurb: From a breathtaking new voice, a novel about a splintered family in Kenya—a story of power and deceit, unrequited love, survival and sacrifice.

Odidi Oganda, running for his life, is gunned down in the streets of Nairobi. His grief-stricken sister, Ajany, just returned from Brazil, and their father bring his body back to their crumbling home in the Kenyan drylands, seeking some comfort and peace. But the murder has stirred memories long left untouched and unleashed a series of unexpected events: Odidi and Ajany’s mercurial mother flees in a fit of rage; a young Englishman arrives at the Ogandas’ house, seeking his missing father; a hardened policeman who has borne witness to unspeakable acts reopens a cold case; and an all-seeing Trader with a murky identity plots an overdue revenge. In scenes stretching from the violent upheaval of contemporary Kenya back through a shocking political assassination in 1969 and the Mau Mau uprisings against British colonial rule in the 1950s, we come to learn the secrets held by this parched landscape, buried deep within the shared past of the family and of a conflicted nation.

Here is a spellbinding novel about a brother and sister who have lost their way; about how myths come to pass, history is written, and war stains us forever.

I read this in the Year of The Plague, which is or isn’t a good thing. I had a hard time with it: the style is so fragmented in parts that it’s hard to understand what the author is getting at – but then! Eventually it all comes together, an intensely painful story, and the fragmentation feels like another character.

Put simply, this book is epic, and has stayed with me.

I’m a big fan of Ms Owuor’s writing. The breathtaking beauty of it, the evocative passages, how immersive it is — I was transported wholesale to northern Kenya (which is now part of my fernweh, thanks for that), and I couldn’t get back again until I was done. Also felt, intensely, the pain the characters went through, and Kenya’s turmoil. Ms Owuor made me care.

I remain unsatisfied by the book’s ending: what actually happened to them?? I desperately want to know. If anyone has thoughts, please tell me.

Recommend this book if you like to travel; if you’d like to learn deeply about Kenya from someone who loves it; if you love literary fiction. It does take some digging into, so give yourself time to feel the writing.

Rated: 9/10.