Product Description

When Pius Fernandes, a retired schoolteacher living in modern day Dar es Salaam, discovers a diary of a British colonial administrator from 1913, he is drawn into a provocative account of the Asian community of East Africa, and the liaisons, feelings and secrets of its people, over the course of a century. Part generational history, part detective story, part social chronicle, M.G. Vassanji's award-winning novel magnificently conjures setting and period as it explores notions of identity and exile.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #315945 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
"A wonderfully ambitious and absorbing novel... by turns detective story, family saga, history... a rich evocative meditation on how and why stories are written." Sunday Times "Vassanji captures a wide and authentic perspective that ranks with VS Naipaul and Graham Greene." THE TIMES "Written with a subtle pen and a compassionate eye... an unusual and satisfying read." Sunday Telegraph"

About the Author
M.G. Vassanji is the author of five acclaimed novels: The Gunny Sack, which won a regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize; No New Land; The Book of Secrets, which won the very first Giller Prize; Amiriika; and The In-Between World of Vikram Lall, which also received the Giller Prize. He lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons.

Customer Reviews

"It is a magic bottle, this book, full of captured spirits."
The narrator of this fascinating novel, Pius Fernandes, uses this description to refer to an old diary, which he has received from one of his former students, a shopkeeper in Dar es Salaam. It is, however, an equally apt description of the novel itself. The "captured spirits," in both cases, represent several generations of Indian expatriate merchants living in the shadows of Mt. Kilimanjaro, straddling the border of Kenya and Tanzania. As Pius Fernandes investigates mysterious events only partially explained by the British Assistant District Commissioner, Alfred Corbin, in his 1913 diary, the reader is treated to a century of East African history, from the days of British and German colonial rule in Kenya and Tanzania, respectively, through its World War II battles, its independence movements, and up to the present. Since the narrator and all the main characters from three generations are either Indian or British, and not African, the reader gains a unique perspective on the unfolding events in these African countries.

The author's ambitious scope and broad perspective, his overlapping characters from several generations, the thread of mystery which connects the 1913 diary with characters well into the present, and his seductive story-telling, all contribute to an exciting narrative which will actively involve even the most jaded reader. The insights we gain into the character of the narrator and one or two other main characters engage the heart, making the conclusion understandable, if not satisfying. Offering a unique point of view, this is a story which enlightens while it entertains. Mary Whipple

Very enjoyable read...
Mr. Vassanji is an engaging, capable writer. The book centers on a lost historical journal; Vassanji skillfully weaves the present day (a historian’s research) with historical events (World War I in Eastern Africa) and daily life (the saga of an Indian merchant’s family). All three facets are equally fascinating. Around the framework of a historian’s jigsaw puzzle, world events and colonial policy, he delves deep into the personal lives, loves, and caste system surrounding African/Indian society.

He also successfully illustrates how illiteracy can blind otherwise clever people to the larger events around them, making them unknowing pawns in a greater game.

This book was hard to put down, and made me curious about visiting this corner of the world.

If you liked The English Patient...
If you liked God of Small Things, or A Fine Balance, read this novel. Part historical, part mystery. Written lyrically, but not impenetrably. The story of how humans create their "talismans" and create history around what they understand or think they understand. A great summer read.