Skip to main content

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson: book review




A Guide to the Birds of East Africa (2008) is a fictional novel set in Nairobi, Kenya, in contemporary times.

The back-cover promotion says this novel is like Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency book series set in Botswana. But Drayson’s book is not a detective book, nor a mystery, nor does it have predominantly African female characters. It does, however, have lots of East African birds.

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa has three main characters in their 60s – two males and a female – who have full lives with frequent travel, previous spouses, jobs, friends, interests, and hobbies; one of which is bird watching.

Mr Malik has attended the weekly Tuesday bird walk of the East African Ornithological Society in Nairobi for the past three years, and is passionately in love with the leader of the group, Rose Mbikwa. But one day his school boy rival, Harry Khan, turns up on the bird walk. Now their rivalry centres on gaining Rose’s attention.

Both men want to invite Rose to the Nairobi Hunt Club Ball, the annual dance. To determine who should invite Rose, Mr Malik and Harry Khan begin a seven-day challenge. Their friends at the Asadi Club act as referees.

The challenge is to spot and identify the highest number of birds within Kenya. What could be easier in Kenya, a land with an exceptionally high number of bird species?

But the challenge has rules – ten strict rules. One of the rules is that there must be no contact with Rose for the whole week – whatsoever – not ‘personal, telephonic or epistolary, nor through any third person nor by any other means.’ Rose is a little confused by their sudden lack of attention.

It’s amazing what two men will do to win the challenge; and who comes to their assistance – friends, family, workers, and strangers. There are other challenges too, such as theft, shootings, and misunderstandings.

This is an easy-to-read, delightful, comical, interesting story that rolls along, or rather rolls around, with a few digressions and stops and starts, until eventually one winner is revealed. More or less. Not only is the winner revealed, but their real personalities also come to surface.







MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), 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).
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass
Post a Comment
Read more

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou
8 comments
Read more