 | The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Buy used from: £0.01 Absolutely gripping, superbly written, a gritty evocation of a way of life. I used up our paraffin supply reading it right into the night.
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 | The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Buy new: £4.49 / Used from: £0.01 Simply the best book to read before going to Africa. Wonderful characters, but the thing I love most about Kingsolver's books is their sense of place. This book is for anyone who is human.
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 | Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Buy new: £6.19 / Used from: £0.01 I read this while receiving training on an organic farm in Uganda. The characters again are wonderful and various, but all with a spiritual connection to the land around them.
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 | The Magus by John Fowles
Buy used from: £2.94 Fascinating, thought-provoking if incredibly confusing book. A young English cad undergoes psychological manipulation and torture on a Greek island so that he can learn some important lessons.
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 | The Man with the Key Has Gone by Ian Clarke
Buy used from: £4.45 True story of an Irish doctor who settled in a Ugandan village to bring medical relief to the suffering. This man is courageous and selfless, though it's the mistakes he makes which are readable!
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 | Anna Karenina by L.N. Tolstoy
Buy used from: £0.01 Like Lady Chatterleys Lover, this was probably quite shocking at the time, but now just seems like a very laborious read. However it is sympathetic to the difficulties faced by women.
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 | The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden
Buy used from: £0.01 What is the point of this book? I thought it was biographical and it would throw some light on Amin's mind, or how he got away with it all. It did not. Uncritical, unsympathetic central character.
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 | Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Buy new: £5.48 / Used from: £0.01 Again, I only read this because the lack of printed material in Africa makes every book seem a precious diversion. However did not really get much from this book, although the twist was clever.
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 | The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
Buy used from: £0.01 Recommended in all the bookshops, I bought this at the airport in a last minute panic at having nothing to read. I was not sorry at all to leave it in Africa when I came home.
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