Elephant Moon by John Sweeney: book review

Elephant Moon (2013) is set in Rangoon, Burma (Myanmar) from December 1941 (after Japanese forces bombed the American naval base at Pearl Harbour near Honolulu in Hawaii) to early 1942.

English school teacher Grace Collins has been working in Burma for 20 years. Four thousand people are killed during the Japanese Christmas Day air raid on Rangoon, but the school and everyone in it were safe. As the Japanese Imperial Army prepare to enter Burma, the British colonial rulers and the Americans prepare to evacuate.

However, 62 school children – half-castes of Burmese women and foreign men – are not on any country’s evacuation list, nor are they acknowledged by Burma. They are to be abandonned, with no-one to look after them.

Grace decides to lead the 62 children to the safety of British-ruled India, 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) away – through jungles, mountains, and rivers in the tropical rain – with malaria, illnesses, and the threat of Japanese soldiers.

At first, their journey was in an old bus, until they see a herd of 53 elephants going to India – 45 adults and eight calves. Grace and the children travel with Sam Metcalf, formerly of the Burma Teak Corporation, and a handful of ‘elephant men’ transporting the elephants across the border to India on behalf of the Burmese Ministry of Agriculture. The children make a game of it by naming the elephants, and these activities juxtapose the brutality of death and murders on route.

Through hardships, and times when the travel becomes too difficult for humans and elephants, the handlers contemplate killing the elephants – but it was the elephants that triumphed and led the children and everyone to safety.

This is fiction, but it is based upon truth – elephant men rescuing refugees from Burma in 1942 after the Fall of Rangoon.

Not well-written (for a former BBC reporter), but a nice story about the dignity of elephants and the brutality of humans, as well as the sheer perseverence of the small band of evacuating travellers through extreme challenges.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- 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).

Comments

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. ...

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...

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog