A fragrant cup of Kenyan tea.
I picked this book from Netgalley, hoping to catch a glimpse of the life and culture of rural Africa and that is what I got. The book is a tale of primal human emotions, it's a tale of love, lust, friendship and betrayal.
Life is hard in the village but Ombima has a family to feed. He cannot watch his children go hungry especially when his master's garden is laden with fruits that is ripe for the picking. So, in the cover of darkness, Ombima steals some cassava and bananas, hardly aware that the lady of the house, Madam Tabitha is watching him. He ought to feel guilty but he did toil in these gardens when working for his master, so why not help himself to some? A turn of events and Ombima has his eyes set on the juiciest fruit in his master's estate. But this forbidden fruit comes at a price.
There is an aura of mystery about Madam Tabitha. She should have had Ombima whipped for stealing from her garden, instead she assigns him the duty of finding the thief. Why?
Drama-wise this book isn't racy or overwhelming but I did feel that the narrative was relatively appealing. A casual flow of words through the story of life in a Kenyan village. A fine peppering of local dialect ( Swahili probably) in the narrative was a nice touch but a glossary of these words would have been helpful. Or maybe the glossary was missing from the copy I had downloaded from Netgalley.
Life is hard in the village but Ombima has a family to feed. He cannot watch his children go hungry especially when his master's garden is laden with fruits that is ripe for the picking. So, in the cover of darkness, Ombima steals some cassava and bananas, hardly aware that the lady of the house, Madam Tabitha is watching him. He ought to feel guilty but he did toil in these gardens when working for his master, so why not help himself to some? A turn of events and Ombima has his eyes set on the juiciest fruit in his master's estate. But this forbidden fruit comes at a price.
There is an aura of mystery about Madam Tabitha. She should have had Ombima whipped for stealing from her garden, instead she assigns him the duty of finding the thief. Why?
Drama-wise this book isn't racy or overwhelming but I did feel that the narrative was relatively appealing. A casual flow of words through the story of life in a Kenyan village. A fine peppering of local dialect ( Swahili probably) in the narrative was a nice touch but a glossary of these words would have been helpful. Or maybe the glossary was missing from the copy I had downloaded from Netgalley.
Excerpt from the book :
"Good day to you, Ombima," she called out. "How was work today?"
There was a brightness around her that made Ombima quite at ease. "Fine, Madam," he said equally cheerfully. The sheen to her rounded cheeks, this close, was almost girlish. Standing there in front of her in his sweat stained work clothes, Ombima felt suddenly self- conscious. He waited for her to ask about the assignment she had given him, but it seemed she too was waiting for him to speak. And so he said, "I've been observing everyone, Madam, and I must say that I am quite baffled." he saw her eyebrow rise, as if to say, "How so?" And so he cleared his throat and carried on, "Indeed I must say that if there is a thief among us,then whoever it is must be very clever. That is because everyone is acting normal to me....no one is giving anything suspicious away."
About the author Stanley Gazemba:
Born in Kenya,Stanley Gazemba is the winner of the Jomo Kenyatta Prize (2003) for fiction for his novel The Stone Hills of Maragoli which was published by The Mantle as Forbidden Fruit. Besides his two other novels ( Khama and Callused Hands) he has published eight children's book, of which A Scare in the Village has won the 2015 Jomo Kenyatta Prize for children's fiction.
A journalist by training, he has written for The New York Times, The East African, Msanii magazine, Sunday Nation and Saturday Nation.
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