Shame by Melanie Finn: book review

Shame (2015) is set in Arnau, Switzerland, and Magulu, Tanzania, in contemporary times (2000s). Pilgrim Jones, an American woman, feels betrayed. Her husband, Tom Lankester, divorced her to marry Elise. Despite not wanting children when he was married to Pilgrim, Tom and Elise have a child.

Then Pilgrim has an ‘incident’ – a tragic incident – or accident – that brings guilt, hatred from others, and shame. The only thing to do is to escape the place where it happened. She travels to Tanzania.

From the capital of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, she meets Mama Gloria, and travels by bus to a remote village. But Pilgrim decides to stay. It is Magulu, only 20 miles from the Kenyan border. Here she stays at the Goodnight Bar and Inn, owned by Gladness. Pilgrim befriends Dorothea, the town’s doctor, who loves the town’s policeman, PC Kessy.

But the past catches up with Pilgrim. Detective Chief Inspector Paul Strebel from Arnau is looking for her. When he arrives in Dar es Salaam, he tells people that Pilgrim is in danger. Is she? In danger from whom? The other man looking for her? Or does Tanzania heal all wounds?

Written in the first person, by Pilgrim Jones, for the majority of the novel, it shifts towards the end. Back and forth in time and place is disorientating, but that is the intent of the author. What happens is disturbing. This is not just an account of what happens to Pilgrim, but what happens to others – others that also experience loss and despair, and revenge.

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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