Product Description

‘Often, at the hour of day when the savannah grass is streaked with silver, and pale gold rims the silhouettes of the hills, I drive with my dogs up to the Mukutan, to watch the sun setting behind the lake, and the evening shadows settle over the valleys and plains of the Laikipia plateau.’ Kuki Gallmann’s haunting memoir of bringing up a family in Kenya in the 1970s first with her husband Paulo, and then alone, is part elegaic celebration, part tragedy, and part love letter to the magical spirit of Africa.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43314 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
Ms Gallmann captures perfectly the magic of Kenya, creating an almost overwhelming picture of beauty and drama, pain and joy, death and resurrection . . . Vividly reminiscent of Isak Dinesen (New York Times )

Powerful, poetic, unbearably moving: I wept (Clare Francis )

'This is a book that belongs on a shelf with the memoirs of Olive Schreiner, Elspeth Huxley, Beryl Markham – and with Out of Africa Judith Thurman

About the Author
Kuki Gallmann was born near Venice and moved to Kenya in 1972 with her husband and young son. Following their deaths, she set up the Gallmann Memorial Foundation to promote new ways of combining development and conservation, and to provide sponsorship for the education of Kenyans. I Dreamed of Africa was first published in 1991 to international acclaim and it became a world-wide bestseller. Her subsequent books, African Nights and Night of the Lions, were also published by Penguin. She lives in Kenya with her daughter and her dogs.

Customer Reviews

A one-sided view of Africa
As the story of Kuki Gallmann this book cannot fail to move. But as a vision of Africa it is very much the White Man's story. Africans seem to have a very secondary role, either as staff or in cultural set-pieces. And while the commitment to wildlife conservation is laudable, the commitment to the wellbeing of Kenyans is sadly missing. By all means read this book; but for another, better angle on contemporary Africa, try Dervla Murphy's "The Ukimwe Road".

A heartbreaking story of a woman who never seems to give up.
I found this book really sad because of the tradegy in Kuki's life but at the same time it was encouraging. Despite the life she has lead she is full of optimism and energy and it made me want to meet her. She brought Africa alive to me and it was interesting to see how life changed for them in Africa. The life she and her friends and family had built for themselves in Africa is amazing. Her love of animals and the enviornment is so important to her and to the memory of her loved ones. It made me want to read on about her life. What struck me the most is how she was able to learn how to live in harmony with the animals and culture around her. Through everything she is still alive and living her life to the full.

The ramblings of a pretentious egotist
I struggle to understand those who could not put this book down - I finished it but only through gritted teeth (if I start a book, I finish it - this has been the only book I have ever read where I came close to not reading it through to the end). The writing style is pretentious in the extreme, at times simply laughable. The story is very much told from the European/colonial perspective - and the tone is very "poor me". I would normally feel sypathetic to someone who had lost both husband and son early, but in this case I am sorry to say that I simply didn't care. The African population endures such tragedies on a daily basis and has done so for decades. Frankly, I don't think this woman looks beyond the end of her privileged nose. You will learn very little about the real Africa or its people from this book.