I had to read this book as part of my book club reading list. Even though it was sitting on my bookshelf for quite a while now, for some reason it was never high enough on my personal list of "to read" books.
What a mistake! I should have read this book long time ago. Not because it made me a better person and not because I had fun reading it. This is not this type of book. It talks about war, the worst kind of war, civil war and famine and death. Not a fun subject unless you are seriously mentally disturbed. But it is not a war novel and you are not overwhelmed by the dramatic to the point where you have nightmares. The strong and integrated characters make sure that this does not happen to you. You follow their everyday life in a country that became alive only to die unrecognised by the rest of the world. It's legacy, though, remains. And yes there are bombings and famine and death, but there is also love and passion and family.
It is a well written book by a writer who does not pretend to know things she doesn't. It has the right amount of everything, history, politics, emotions and at the end it instigates a need in you to go and find more books and novels written by African writers about Africa.
