Description: This haunting novel of corruption and regret brings to life the complexity and turbulence of Kenyan society in the last five decades. It is a powerful story of passionate betrayals and political violence, racial tension and the strictures of tradition, told in elegant, assured prose.
Review Quotes: "Gorgeous and heart-rending. . . . Vassanji explores [love and loss] with all the tact of a true literary power." --Chicago Tribune"Brilliantly written and deeply felt, it is a resonant family novel that is also a brutally honest portrayal of the last half century of tumultuous Kenyan history. . . . Vassanji displays his great gifts; this beautiful novel, which unfolds with intimacy and an inexorable sense of destiny, is proof that fictional truth can illuminate an epoch in history like nothing else."-The Boston Globe"Tautly written. . . . Admirably captures the tenor of the postcolonial period: the predicament of the Asian minority, the corruption that marred Kenya's fledgling independence, and the individual tragedies that were the cost of the revolution."-The New Yorker"A novel of elegant gesture, complex understanding, bright passion, and historical pain."-O, The Oprah Magazine"Finely drawn . . . an ambitious and enthralling work."-The Times Literary Supplement