Contemporary
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When up-and-coming hat maker Anna Peel gets divorced, she starts looking for something fulfilling to occupy her time and signs up to become a sponsor at a school on the banks of the Zambezi.
So begins her correspondence with precocious 10-year-old Henry Sissonga, Grace Nkomo the founder of Mwabonwa School and Dann Huismann, former Captain in the Royal Netherlands Army and now Geography Teacher. But when Dann’s apparent interest suddenly cools, Anna wonders if this is somehow linked to the mysterious death of his wife and son or perhaps is it his growing attachment to visiting Danish academic Dr Lottie Lund.
When an opportunity comes for Anna to travel to Zambia to teach design at the newly opened Twalumba Women’s Art Centre, she seizes the chance for adventure and personal fulfilment but must reconcile her commitment to the empowerment of the local village women with her growing affection for a man - damaged by war and personal tragedy - who clearly does not reciprocate her feelings.
Little does Anna know how much she will be drawn into this captivating world and how her arrival will change all their lives forever.
Here's what readers have to say about this book....
Lovely book, wonderful descriptions of both the country and its people. The slow burn of the "romantic" relationship and the insight into the family dynamic of the Peels was delightful.
This book had an unusual writing style. It was written entirely in emails and letters. While this was original it did make the language formal which might not be for everyone. It did, however, make me think about how interconnected we could be with modern technology and how people share their lives with others even over great distances. The actual plot was very interesting, involving the different cultures of the characters and the cute relationships they developed.
The beautiful artwork on the cover of this book caught my eye, and I really enjoyed it. Perhaps stylistically it's not for everyone but I personally loved all the different voices and it's nice to read a slow-burning romance that's not all about sex! I also loved the other characters, and the evocative descriptions of Africa.
I'm afraid I struggled with this book, in much the same way as the present last reviewer on Amazon Kindle. The continual use of emails and the admixture of POV's from the characters made for ardious reading. Had these been interspersed with more conventional, reader-friendly narrative, I would have carried on reading it. Though the setting is appealing, I also found the text quite dull and lifeless, so, akin to the Kindle reviewer, I gave up after about 50 pages. If this author writes another, I hope she changes style
Absolutely loving this book - thoroughly enjoying reading this and taking my time as I don’t want to miss any details. Hope Ali writes another book. ☺️
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