Africa Books

This is one of the best nature books, or for that matter one of the best books I've ever read in my life! It has beautiful photographs and very detailed and helpful information, and it shows facts about lions that even the kid most interested in lions didn't know. Also, on top of that, it even takes us into the lives of many true lions, and even goes so far as to show us pictures of a lion or lioness's face close up or the animals it lives with, such as leopards, wild dogs, hyenas, cheetahs, jackals, elephants, and vultures. I always have been and always will be a lion lover(as well as a lover of all cool and gorgeous animals)and I recommend this book to any cat fan.

WOW! One of the best lion books I have ever read! I've learned more from reading this one book then any other lion book I have read! It gives you a more in-depth look on lions, and their interesting lives. A must-read for any lion or big cat lover!

Several years ago I was lucky enuogh to spend a few weeks with Pieter Kat at his camp in Botswana. The experience was tremendous, and as I read his book, Prides, I could once again hear lions roaring in the evenings, see tiny cubs romping with tails and ears of adults, and remember many of the conflicts and struggles that threaten the survival of lion populations in Northern Botswana. The book is stunning. The photos are sensual and captivating; it is easy to spend hours paging through the pictures revisiting brilliant sunrises, herds of zebra, lionesses nuzzling. Harvey has done a commendable job capturing movements, dynamics and expressions, and as you page through, it is difficult to quiet the crunching of dry grasses underfoot and the yapping of jackels on the periphery. The text is similarly impressive. Conservation issues are identified and analyzed within a narrative that moves throughout the lion prides of Moremi Game Reserve and the nearby management areas. Kat increases the scope of research on lion biology in the Okavango Delta and frames scientific ideas around the story of his research. The book is a testament to maintaining biodiversity and wilderness areas and is a beautiful and insightful look at the lions of Moremi.

Gently surprised by the beauty and eloquence of prose, Bridget O'Mahony's Pagan Dances of Caherbarnagh takes the reader through the empty loneliness of the mournful Irish émigré.
Essentially this poignant tail is about emigration, survival in a foreign land and acceptance of a time lost. It is much more than it seems at first glance.

Pagan Dances is not technically a novel, but rather a story of reminiscences through the rendering of sad, touching letters from home and a series of short stories. It is heavy with typical Irish melancholy.

This is invaluable storytelling which easily holds the readers attention. Alternating between stories filled with eccentric characters that make up the Irish universe and letters from a heartbroken mother in Ireland to her son now living in Seattle, this book takes you on a wistful Irish journey.

In particular I enjoyed the letters from family members in Ireland. They revealed more about the heartache of broken families forced into exile due to the economic circumstances before the recent Celtic Tiger economy.

Years of isolation from family and friends, the familiarity of the homeland and the fast pace of their contemporary lives underscores the main character of Christie Horan, who ends up being too busy to return home to attend his mother's funeral.
One good example of fear within Irish society is one man's ostracization as he contemplates selling his farm. The anger projected at him is easily felt emanating from the pages.

One of my fondest and most lasting memories of Ireland is the prolific fuchsia shrubs seemingly everywhere in Ireland. O'Mahony's description of the red and purple flowers growing wild struck a sensitive chord in me.

Of course there are references to set dancing and music throughout this tome but it is the lasting quality of melancholic longing which stretches its long, grasping tentacles around your heart that sets the mood, It does not make a vain attempt at pretending to be a literary masterpiece. It is just a really good read.

PAGAN DANCES OF CAHERBARNAGH is a collection of stories, spun from the fabric of a young girl's memories of her musician father, her homemaker mother, their farm, her sisters & brothers, & the passion of dancing that overtook the young men & women around her village, before rock & roll rumbled over the hills.

It is also an enchanting collection of memories of Irish immigrants, past & present, now settled in New York & Seattle & their forays back to The Old Country.

PAGAN DANCES OF CAHERBARNAGH is a breath of fresh Irish air, with glimpses of a time long gone; about people out of their element, filled with nostalgia for what once was & is now, only memory.

Pagan Dances Of Caherbarnagh is a splendidly written novel revealing the soul of Ireland and the breath of America. Written with resounding emotion, author Bridget O'Mahony's covers the heart-wrenching loss of leaving one's country, family, and identity for a glittering future hope in a far-off land. A moving, fiery tale of drive, determination, and the uplifting vigor of the spirit, Bridget O'Mahony's is highly recommended reading from first page to last!.

En este pequeño libro se ve el internacionalismo en acción. Nelson Mandela y Fidel Castro explica en discursos dieron conjuntos en Cuba ( en 1991 ) como la ayuda militar, incluye combatientes voluntarios que Cuba dió a Angola combatir las invasiones de las tropas de sudafrica racista ayudó a la lucha independentista de Namibia y también a la revolución democratica sudafricana.. Más que todo, en este libro dos soldados de la revolución mundial plantean un punto de vista cientifica acerca del imperialismo, el capitalismo hoy día llamada " globalizado"que Fidel describe como la esclavitud de hoy en día, y - más importante que todo - ,la capacidad que la gente " común", los trabajadores y campesinos tomar el poder, hacer revolución, y empezar la historia humana. Como Mandela dijo en estas paginas, es el pueblo que hacen la historia - no los reyes ni los príncipes ni los generales.Es una lección indispensible por nosotros los obreros y campesinos en lucha en contra de la clase de superricos hoy y mañana.

Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela together in Cuba, not simply celebrating the victory of the South African Freedom struggle, not simply celebrating the continued life of the Cuban revolution, but speaking the truth about how the oppressed of the world can fight,can struggle, can win. Just the idea that this little book exists, let alone its stirring, intelligent words, reminds me that though the battles have been tough, working people fighting like these two fighters can win.

While this book is not always available on Amazon, it is always available from BooksfromPathfinder, an Amazon Z store that you can get to by clicking on New and Used further up this page!

Aquí hay dos discursos magníficos por destacados dirigentes revolucionarios: Nelson Mandela de Sudáfrica y Fidel Castro de Cuba, en ocasión de la visita de Mandela a Cuba en 1991.

Mandela acaba de haber salido de la cárcel en Sudáfrica, después de cumplir 28 años de una condena perpetua por su lucha contra el sistema racista del apartheid. Su visita a Cuba tuvo una importancia especial, dado en papel imprescindible de cientos de miles de voluntarios cubanos en la lucha militar contra la invasión de Angola por el ejército sudafricano. La derrota de los invasores en la histórica batalla de Cuito Cuanavale en 1988 abrió una nueva y exitosa etapa en la lucha contra el apartheid. También fue una experiencia importante que fortaleció la conciencia revolucionaria en Cuba, haciendo posible avances contra la presión del capitalismo y el burocratismo.

El título del libro "¡Que lejos hemos llegado los esclavos!" viene del discurso de Fidel, hablando de los raíces africanos de los pueblos de Cuba y de todo el Caribe. Una perspectiva internacionalista incomparable de la unidad de los intereses y las luchas de los pueblos explotados y oprimidos en todo el mundo!

Any book by Desmond Tutu is inspirational, and he always has an appealingly humorous style. Read this and "An African Prayer Book." And if you are intriqued by this great man, read "A TELLING TIME" by Glynnis Hayward, too. There is a character in this moving South African novel, Rev Mkize, who is a Zulu priest. I feel he is inspired by the famous Archbishop, whom he quotes respectfully.

Desmond Tutu is definately a man of God. His love, forgiveness and courage is set firmly in his belief of the Gospel. Through this book he clearly demonstrates the power that comes from a belief. The journals will inspire anybody.

The Rainbow People of God is a must-have anthology of Desmond Tutu's most motivating and inspiring letters, sermons and addresses between 1974 and 1994. John Allen (editor) includes some of Tutu's most memorable public addresses and skillfully weaves historical background information into the public addresses for the reader's benefit. This proves extremely helpful in painting an overall picture of the antiapartheid movement in South Africa. Anyone who has listened to Tutu speak understands that he often employs humor to illustrate the darkness and oppression caused by apartheid. Readers expecting such humor will enjoy complete satisfaction in this collection of Tutu's speeches. Through Tutu's voice, we learn how he successfully merged African and Christian philosophy to become one of the key players in defeating apartheid.

Reversing sail: A history Of The African Diaspora, by Michael A. Gomez, knocks it out of the ball park; with this highly engaging, well reseached, & wonderfully written book. He leaves no thread untied, in bringing together the history of the African Diaspora; and his scholarship is beyond reproach. He unites the African Diaspora in a insightful, "Holistic" way, better than any book on the subject I have read so far,I defiantly, highly, recommened this wonderful book !

This book has a statement in its epilogue that is among the best I've ever seen as a match between the subject matter and the purpose of the book itself - Michael A. Gomez writes of the growth of reconnection between Africa proper and those scattered around the world, stating that, `Given the ongoing impoverishment of many in Africa and the Diaspora, such interrelationships require deeper and more practical meaning if they are to play a significant role in ending the despair. The incredible beauty and creativity of the African Diaspora, combined with its unbelievable suffering and disadvantage, are contradictions awaiting resolution.'

Gomez is a professor of history at NYU, a university that offers degree programmes in the study of the African Diaspora. Gomez remarks on the value of the interactions with people at the university in his acknowledgements - it is in the storytelling and conversations that many subjects such as this one come to greater life and clarity. Gomez writes that the story of the African Diaspora is unlike any other in the history of the world, full of contradiction and ambiguity, but nonetheless sharing a pedigree as ancient as almost any other continuing society in the world.

Gomez makes the distinction between the study of the African Diaspora and the study of African Americans in two ways: first, it looks to see the influence of and influences on African-descended persons in different ways in new non-African environments and cultures; and second, it makes comparisons and examines relationships between these communities in geographically separated or distinct ways. It is not tied to the American nation-state, or any other particular nation-state or continent, but looks at persons of African descent outside Africa on a global scale.

There are shared features, however, that many of these communities share beyond their point of origin. Many of the communities find an experience of enslavement, a struggle to maintain traditional African culture, struggles against discrimination, and continuing identification with Africa as common bonds. Gomez divides the book into two sections, the `old world' and the `new world'. Old world topics include the ancient cultures in and around Africa (Egypt, Nubia, Greece and Rome), biblical themes and influences (and the broader context of Judeo-Christian history in African Diaspora themes), and Islamic cultural influences. The role of Africans in each of these histories and traditions is varied and significant; some myths are laid to rest here (the Islamic cultures practiced slavery as did the Western cultures, and in some places continue to have race-relation issues that stem from economic and cultural disadvantages coming out of this period much as the Western world has had), and points of difficulty in understanding and researching are identified (the lack of primary sources, sustained communities preserving histories, etc. means that much has been lost).

With regard to the new world, the history begins with the transatlantic slave trade, particularly the Middle Passage. Slavery was not a monolithic institution, and slavery was practiced differently in different parts of the new world. Thus, the response of the African descendents and the dominant culture vary from place to place; Gomez looks at slavery experience from colony to colony as well as from general regional perspectives. South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and North America all had different purposes and different treatment toward slaves. Again, Gomez lays certain myths to rest: `Although there were 8 million white Southerners in 1860, only 384,884 were slaveholders. This would suggest that the vast majority of whites had no relationship to slavery, had no vested interest in it, but just the opposite was true.' The dominant culture needed the institution of slavery, even if it was only a minority of members of that culture who actually owned the slaves.

Gomez also looks at the emancipation processes of the slaves beyond the North American perspective, showing the different ways in which the struggle for freedom and the achievement of the same manifested in different countries. For example, Haiti's Revolution in the late eighteenth century is shown to be both `crowning achievement' and an ironic catalyst for worsening slavery conditions elsewhere. The aftermath continues to be felt to this day, as `those who struggled so valiantly against tyranny have only met with a U.S.-led policy of ostracism and indifference every since.' Gomez also highlights the experience in Cuba, distinct from many other experiences in the Americas, as a place where the post-slavery situation did not automatically become a place of racial tension and prejudice.

Gomez' final two chapters show the reconnection and movement of people back toward their history, culture and identity, while still remaining, as members of the Diaspora, outside of their ancestral homeland. Communities reconnected with Africa as well as connected for the first time with each other; people of African descent all over the world had the freedom and resources, however limited, to make their own connections on a global scale. This includes but is not limited to political, social, and artistic connections - in areas such as sports and music, there is substantial success across such international boundaries.

Gomez ends each chapter with a narrative bibliography for further readings and research. Gomez states specifically that his intention is not to be exhaustive or comprehensive, but rather to give an introduction into the various places, times, events and persons connected with the broad topic of the African Diaspora. In this regard, Gomez succeeds. The text is interesting and accessible, giving sufficient detail without becoming tedious but also not lacking information or leaving things unaccounted for, save when the primary source material simply is not available (as is the case frequently, and this is part of the issue that Gomez highlights throughout the text). The index is useful, and there are a few maps and pictures scattered throughout the book. I might wish for one bibliography listing in the back for ease of reference, and footnoting through the text for further identification of sources, but these are minor quibbles given the scope and purpose of the book.

Professor Gomez has written a rather concise but scholarly general overview of the history of the African Diaspora. For three years I have been teaching a course in the Afr. and Afr. Amer. Studies department at the University of Memphis which is designed to introduce the student to the concept and early history of the Diaspora. I had also been assiduously searching for a quality, cost efficient text which could serve as a compliment to my notes. I think that I have found it in this work.

What a wonderful book!! Young adults and mature readers alike will find the humour, the very interesting history and the culture of Kenya in this book, very hard to put down - although the anecdotal format makes for easy, and short reading episodes.
Mr Gill's teenage years will surely trigger reader's memories and the hilarious school days during the 2nd WW make us realize that those forever lost days were wonderful days indeed. If only we could still feel the safety in being able to allow 2 mid-teenage boys to take a 400 mile walk from Nairobi to the Northern Frontier District and back without fearing personal disaster. Mr. Gill's books would make a terrific TV mini-series.
Give them for Crhristmas, birthdays, anniversaries. A welcome gift anytime.

More hilarious adventures by a really good writer. His smooth, yet fast-paced writing is a boon to the reader with a busy schedule.
Being in my 20's, I can really relate to Mr Gill's teenage years. Although adventures in sport exist for us today, my parents could never have allowed me at 15, to take a 400 mile trek into whatever wilderness there is still to be found.
Mr. Gill's characters are truly memorable and I laughed until the tears ran down my cheeks at the events of the Morgan Holiday.
This and his first book, Rambunctious Reflections should find a very wide audience. A great gift idea. Thank you Mr. Gill.

This sequel to the author's first book of memoirs,'Rambunctious Reflections',which covers his early childhood years in Kenya, does not disappoint.Like it's predecessor it is packed full of pithy tales of adventure and bravado.Many of these are extremely funny and all are written with the humour and sensitivity of hindsight.
This time we are taken from the age of around ten, through teenage years, a spell at Dublin's Trinity College and back to Kenya for first years of employment.
The book opens with an action packed account of a family seaside holiday.This is no ordinary holiday(but then nothing that happens through out can be described as "ordinary")- and invovles the author taking it on himself to blow the roof off the privy, a close encounter with a leopard, another with two snakes, and the kitchen being stampeded by a herd of buffalo!This is not to mention his aunt's narrow escape from the clutches of a handsome young man ,who was not all he appeared to be.!
The rest of the action unfolds in similar vein as we learn what it was like for a young boy to grow up in the Kenya of sixty years ago. We see him learning to ride a horse through lion inhabited terrain,with the incentive to remain in the saddle somewhat greater than usual!, shooting crocodiles and taking on such challenges as swimming round Mombasa island and embarking on a 400 mile trek,which was finished in a remarkable nine days.
I was intrigued to learn about the customs of the Masai people- their way of measuring age and distance, the tradition of circumcision, blooding the spear etc.
One of the funniest tales concerns a misunderstanding about an arsenic laced cattle dip.
In stark contrast there is the harrowing story of a young Polish boy, who had been the subject of Nazi experimentation. It does, however , have an extraordinarily positive outcome for another unfortunate person.
Of the many characters who populate the book I think perhaps it is the hapless school teachers of the PoW who stand out the most.I must confess to a certain amount of sympathy for them for the many pranks they suffer at the hands of the merciless boys!!
I was kept entertained from cover ot cover and look forward to the publication of Gill's next Book.

This book will appeal to two kinds of people: those who have engineering or technical backgrounds, and those who don't. My wife is in the second category. She found the history and details of the water supply gave a fascinating window into ordinary life in Roman times. The problem that every civilization must solve, obtaining and distributing potable water, solved in a characteristically Roman manner by efficient public construction.

As an engineer, I became fascinated with the technical knowledge and skills demonstrated. Both civil engineering and hydraulic engineering expertise, achieving fine results with crude instruments. We marvel at Roman stonework, but keeping a constant slope over several kilometers is more technically difficult.

I found that much of what one knows about aqueducts isn't true. Siphons to cross valleys, instead of more costly and difficult bridges. Manholes at frequent intervals, for manually cleaning out limestone deposits, the bane of the system. Concrete and polished hydraulic cement. Who knew?

While the topics are technical, the writing is clear and self-explanatory, and the text is profusely illustrated. As long as you remember that water runs downhill, you'll be technically comfortable. The text follows the downhill flow of the water through the system, from the lakes or springs, to the cities, to the baths and fountains, to the sewers.

My major complaint is poor availability. Despite Amazon's current (August '05) "normally 3 to 5 weeks" to ship, I've now waited over 30 days for my second copy, and have been advised of at least another 30 day delay. My emailed enquiry to the publisher went unanswered.

I want to share this book with friends, but not my copy. "There are two kinds of fools: those who lend books, and those who return them." So, order yours now. Maybe you'll get it by Christmas. Enjoy!

After reading "Pompeii: A Novel" (Robert Harris) I was keen to read more on the details of the aqueducts that starred in Harris' book and found this book.

If you've even wondered "how did they do it" then this book will tell you. While sometimes a little lacking in punctuation the book flows well and is well illustrated.

I was certainly left with a renewed respect for the Roman engineers after reading this.

And apart from the engineering it gives you an insight into a completely different cultural perspective. Hodge makes the case that, contrary to popular belief, the aqueducts were primarily for what we might view as an extravagance given the cost - public & private baths and water features.

I bought this book because it was one of the few recommended books about aqueducts to be recommended to me for my writing about Ancient Rome. I have no engineering experience, but found the book to be very easy to follow and enjoyable to read.

All the questions I had about aqueducts were answered in this book and it gave me more than enough information on the subject.

I wish my history professors in college would have used sections of this book during the discussions on aqueducts because we were taught so little about these engineering miracles.

The theme of this book is many things. The book starts out where she's from and her family, giving a backgorund of the character. Then it fades into her being kidnapped and trying to figure out how to get home. After that, she finds out that she's really part of a royal family. I'm not going to give away the ending, though.
The main character's name is, as the title states, Saba. She lives in Ethiopia with her grandmother and her brother in the woods. Saba is, at first, trying to figure out why they never go into town and why they are so secluded. Then she is trying to figure out why her grandmother never told her that she is really part of a royal family. After that, she learns the hard way why nobody ever told her that she was part of a royal family.
Some of the other characters are her grandmother and her brother. Her grandpa, who died, and her parents, who she was told were dead. Later many more characters are added.
This book is set in eighteen hundred, forty-six Ethiopia. The geography was rocky, mountainous and very hilly. In this time period, Ethiopia is in the midlle of a war.
There isn't really a major problem in this story. Actually there are just a bunch of smaller problems. First, when she's kidnapped it's how to get home. Then when she's at the palace, closer to the end, it's how to get out of there before she's married off!
Like I said, the first problem is her being kidnapped. As to her really getting home, that isn't really accomplished in this book. As to the second problem I stated, she is helped by the many friends she's made at the palace to escape the grounds. Once she leaves the palace, she rescues her brother and they start to leave, which is where the book leaves off.

Twelve-year-old Saba is a regular girl living in the country of Ethopia in 1846. Like any regular girl she has a brother, Mesfin, and a strict grandmother whom she adores greatly. Everything is well for her until she and her brother disobey and venture out of their home, where they are kidnapped and brought to the royal palace. It is there that Saba finally learns of her true identity. At first, Saba, keenly unaware of the dangers of the court, can only delight in her new found surroundings. Unfortuantely, innocence can not last forever, and she learns of a deadly threat to her and her brother...one that threatens their very lives and freedom. Yet, Saba is determined to use her wits to save her and her brother from the treacherous inner working of the court.

I was very much fascinated with this book for it was one of the very few books that talks about the Ethopia royal family in any great detail. Saba is a strong first-person narrator and you will enjoy her way of expressing herself. A definite must-read.

Saba Under the Hyena's Foot
By Kurtz
Historical Fiction
Character Motivation
By Jamie (age 9)
"I turned to flee. Out of nowhere hands grabbed me." This book is about twelve year old Saba and how she found out she was royalty. But when she did find out mean Empress Menen tried to get rid of Saba by marrying her to a prince. But Saba has one week to find her brother and escape. Will Saba do it? How? Reed the book and see!!

Saba's goal is to find her Emama and her brother. Her motivation is the unhappy thought of being married to a prince makes her keep trying. Another motivation she has is to be with her only family her and Emama (grandmother.) Another motivation she has is to get away from the evil Empress Menen.

Even though every book in this series is historical fiction the author's make the book seem so real like it was really happening. I recommend this book for girls ages 9-15 that have read at least one book in this series before. I like this book because it has a lot of detail that support the main idea. For instance, Saba would not take off her barebaso slippers because they were given to her in kindness. I hope if you read this book you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Not since the late James McClure's Kramer and Zondi novels has a crime writer taken readers so deeply into South Africa. Where McClure exposed the brutality and minutiae of the apartheid era, Richard Kunzmann sets his novels in the present - a present with deep roots in the past.

His second novel, "Salamander Cotton" opens with the murder of an old man, Bernard Klamm, who dies a more horrible death than anyone deserves. Or maybe no cruelty is too horrible for Klamm, who, Johannesburg Detective Jacob Tshabalala soon learns, grew rich on the blood of black asbestos miners, kept a cache of horrifying child pornography and may have killed his own daughter 39 years earlier for taking a black lover.

But this, too, is a picture soon blurred and shaded as Jacob realizes the answers lie in the past, in the isolated mining town of Leopold Ridge where Klamm made his money and his daughter disappeared. But the city's budget won't stretch to this. So resourceful Jacob arranges for his former partner Harry Mason (who retired after Kunzmann's debut "Bloody Harvests") to be hired by Klamm's estranged wife. She wants someone to investigate her daughter's disappearance and this is a job, Jacob is sure, which will help solve Klamm's murder.

The center of the book belongs to Harry as he pokes into forbidden places in the dangerous town, where thugs administer the law and ghosts roam the hills. Point of view shifts mostly between Harry and Jacob, with some views from secondary characters including a vicious cop and a frightened dying man, which flesh out the complex narrative.

Various subplots and a narrative that moves back and forth in time gives the novel added depth, but also requires a bit of attention on the part of the reader to keep things straight. Kunzmann makes it well worth the effort.

In Johannesburg Police Detective Inspector Jacob Tshabalala investigates the homicide of elderly former mining boss Bernard Klamm. The murder was extremely brutal and Jacob wonders if the violence ties back to the victim's extensive pornography collection. He also learns that the divorced Klamm was once married to a Henrietta Campbell and their daughter vanished without a trace three decades ago making the sleuth ponder if that is the key clue or just a coincidental red herring.

As the official investigation goes slowly, Henrietta hires private investigator Harry Mason based on Jacob's recommendation re his former partner, to dig deep especially in the Northern Cape where Klamm owned a remote farm. Mason checks into the three decade old disappearance of their daughter to see if the present killing is linked. He is unprepared for corporate cover-ups of asbestos mining effects on the workers and angry acrimonious people seeking vengeance to what has occurred to them due to avaricious irresponsibility.

This starts off as an exhilarating South African police procedural, but turns into an exciting private investigative tale that ties the 1960s with the 1990s. The whodunit is fast-paced and filled with twists and red herrings. The contrasts between the two eras are incredibly striking and enhance a strong murder mystery that like the first Tshabalala-Mason team-up (BLOODY HARVEST) will enthrall the audience with its insightful look at South Africa through the eyes of the two sleuths.

Harriet Klausner

Richard Kunzmann proves that "Bloody Harvests", his debut novel, was no fluke as he follows up with "Salamander Cotton", another gripping and grisly tale of crime and culture in South Africa that is as intelligent and stylishly-written as it is bloody and brutal. The author's smart and sophisticated style raises this far above the average blood and guts cop thriller, weaving murder and mayhem with racial tension and a culture that is uniquely South African. Kunzmann wastes no time getting the reader riveted in place, opening up with the graphically barbarously creative murder of Bernard Klamm, a retired ex-mining boss, in Johannesburg's affluent suburban home. Back on the case is Detective Inspector Jacob Tshabalala, as calm and understated as he is competent. But it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to find out that Klamm was a man with many enemies and few friends, a near monster of a man who, even despite his open outward callousness, was hiding deeper, more sordid secrets. Overwhelmed with the scope and implications of Klamm's murder, Tshabalala lures former partner Harry Mason, retired from the force after his wife's murder, back into action to help investigate, representing Klamm's estranged widow as a private detective.

From there, Tshabalala and the murder almost take a back seat, serving as mere backdrop for a complicated and engaging tale of the South Africa's asbestos mining industry (the title refers to the native American's name for the fibrous and heat resistant mineral). While Kunzmann succeeds in keeping the story racially balanced, avoiding the hand wringing melodrama and indignant outrage that can easily overwhelm the plot with difficult subject matter like this, the conditions to which the asbestos miners were subjected is nonetheless disturbing. Meanwhile, Mason's probes of the unsolved decades-old disappearance of Klamm's own daughter takes on a life of it's own, the locals convinced her vengeful spirit haunts young teenaged girls in the vicinity of Klamm's abandoned mines. And if that's not enough to keep you busy separating plot threads, throw in Klamm's callous widow and her oily live in architect lover to add to the mystery and intrigue.

In short, a broad and ambitious effort succeeds in building the suspense and mystery of a good old fashioned whodunit, while at the same time illuminating the "other" fascinating subculture "down-under." Kunzmann is a talented young author that deserves wider acclaim - "Salamander Cotton" is an unusual read and a great place to get to know him.

I was fascinated throughout. Sounds and looks "dry" when you see it on the shelf, but so full of juicy bits that make his life very real. You cheer for him when he manages to think his way around the obstacles that apartheid and his own nature put in his way and you are continually forced to confront the "What would I have done here?" question.



Yes, it is long. But when you are through you want to know still more. What has happened to the rest of the family since the book was published? What was the effect of those years of scrutiny on their "real" lives?



I stared at the pictures and studied the faces. I have been selectively pushing the book on all the thoughtful people I know. It wakes up your brain.

The daily life of Kas Maine over 90 odd years on the high veldt of South Africa says more about the history of that part of the world than all the history books and newspaper articles and military actions that could ever be recounted. I felt as though I myself had lived those same 90 years, breathed the dust, lost my crops, driven my livestock from farm to farm trying to find sharecropping work, put up and taken down my corregated metal shack, been hounded by bureaucrats, maintained my dignity and kept my family together against incredible odds. Although the place names and indigenous family names were difficult and their abundance presumed some familiarity with South Africa, I learned to visualize rather than pronounce them, and they became like one of Kas's stony fields in the story and I liked the "rough footing." A unique experience in book form.

I have been taking my time with this book, savouring it while I can. The rhythms of the prose and the world it describes are so seductive, that I have often found myself reading "just a few more pages" at 3AM despite having to get up for work the next day. If you wish to have a sense of what life in rural South Africa was like over the past century, I can't think of a better book (or any other book for that matter). Kas was an exceptionally gifted farmer, a traditional herbalist and healer, and a patriarch who struggled against the almost impossible odds of being a black man in South Africa. As the insanity of apartheid took hold, he and his family were forced to move from place to place, his dreams of agricultural success and land ownership gradually eroding. Yet the book also portrays the rich, multicultural environment of the Transvaal, the varied relationships between Blacks, Boers, Englishmen, Jews and Asians; the shift from a paternalistic but, in many ways more egalitarian society to a racist police state. Kas is a complex man: wise, cruel, patient, tender, pragmatic, apolitical, opportunist, and honourable. The portrayals of his relationships with his ever expanding family are as complex and engaging as one could wish from a fine novel. Van Onselen makes no apologies for him: he simply gives us the man and, above all his humanity. Perhaps his greatest achievement with this book is in bridging the gap between the Western reader and an illiterate African farmer, in underlining our human commonalities rather than our differences. Despite occasional passages that are a tad purple, the author's prose is clear and flowing. He manages to make the ebb and flow of the seasons with their triumphs, tragedies, and ignominies absolutely gripping. I never thought that I could be enthralled by descriptions of the complexities of plowing and harvesting, or the purchase of agricultural equipment, but I was. No it's not too long as the reviewer in the New York Times claimed. In fact one often wishes that one could know more about this extraordinary yet very ordinary man.