Book picks similar to
The Ambassadors Daughter: A Novel Out of Africa by Samantha Ford


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The Burning Land


George Alagiah - 2019
    Sabotage, yes. Propaganda, yes. All of that and more - but not this. Not murder.' As greed and corruption taint the optimism of a nation, the political becomes deeply personal for former childhood friends, Lindi and Kagiso. Their beloved home country, South Africa, is rapidly turning into a powder keg, as nations fight for ownership of its land and resources. With the murder of one of the nation's bright young hopes, the fuse is well and truly lit. As the hunt for his killer intensifies, Lindi and Kagiso come together to protect the land and people they love; even as events are set in motion that no one - least of all they - can control.

Hold My Hand I'm Dying


John Gordon Davis - 1967
    Joseph Mahoney, the last colonial commissioner in the spectacular Kariba Gorge, is there to witness the death throes. Somehow, he must also ease the birth pangs of the new Africa that will take its place. His companions are Samson, his Matabele servant, and Suzie, the girl he loves.But Mahoney and Suzie are drifting apart, and now Samson has been accused of murder. And all too quickly, it seems, the country is heading towrds a bloodbath of revenge.Hold My Hand I'm Dying - a compelling story of freedom, friendship and love in the face of hatred, violence and death.

The Thor Conspiracy: The Seventy-Hour Countdown to Disaster


Larry Burkett - 1995
    Readers will find intrigue and inspiration in the story of one man's death-defying struggle to uncover the truth behind 50 years of government lies.

The Great Karoo


Fred Stenson - 2008
    The Boers have turned out to be more resilient than expected, so the British have sent a call to arms to their colonies — and an a great number of men from the Canadian prairies answer the call and join the Canadian Mounted Rifles: a unit in which they can use their own beloved horses. They assume their horses will be able to handle the desert terrain of the Great Karoo as readily as the plains of their homeland. Frank Adams, a cowboy from Pincher Creek, joins the Rifles, along with other young men from the ranches and towns nearby — a mix of cowboys and mounted policeman, who, for whatever reason, feel a desire to fight for the Empire in this far-off war.Against a landscape of extremes, Frank forms intense bonds with Ovide Smith, a French cowboy who proves to be a reluctant soldier, and Jefferson Davis, the nephew of a prominent Blood Indian chief, who is determined to prove himself in a “white man’s war.” As the young Canadians engage in battle with an entrenched and wily enemy, they are forced to realize the bounds of their own loyalty and courage, and confront the arrogance and indifference of those who have led them into conflict. For Frank, disillusionment comes quickly, and his allegiance to those from the Distict of Alberta, soon displaces any sense of patriotism to Canada or Britain, or belief that he’s fighting for a just cause.The events of the novel follow the trajectory of the war. The British strategy of burning Boer farms, destroying herds, and moving Boer families into camps weakens the Boer rebels, but they refuse to give up. The thousands of Boer women and children who die in the camp make the war ever more unpopular among liberals in Britain. (In fact, this conflict marked the first use of the term “concentration camp” in war.) Seeing the ramifications of such short-sighted military decisions, and how they affect what happens to Frank and the other Canadians, is crucial to depicting the reality of the Boer War. By focusing on the experiences of a small group of men from southern Alberta, Fred Stenson brings the reality of what it would have been like to be a soldier in this brutal war to vivid life. The Great Karoo is a deeply satisfying novel, marked by the complexities of its plot, the subtleties of its relationships, and the scale of its terrain. Exhilarating and gruesome by turns, it explores with passion and insight the lasting warmth of friendship and the legacy of devastation occasioned by war.

The School of Restoration: The story of one Ugandan woman who has given hope to hundreds of female survivors of war and violence


Alice Achan - 2020
    She spent five years on the run from the brutal LRA, and then cared for her young nieces after their mother died of AIDs, losing them one by one to the disease. Their deaths plunged her into depression, which only began to lift after she took in an unexpected guest: a pregnant teenage girl, kidnapped and assaulted by the LRA, who had escaped captivity with her toddler.Spurred on by her young friend's plight, Alice began to house and nurture survivors of the sexual violence that was a trademark of the LRA's twenty-year campaign. Out of this rose the Pader Girls Academy, which Alice saw as a 'School of Restoration'. It has helped hundreds of girls, many left with babies and HIV as a result of their enslavement. Alice recognised the humanity and potential in these girl mothers, who had been rejected or were trapped in their villages without hope.Written in Alice's powerful yet understated voice, The School of Restoration is a compelling story of hope, forgiveness, redemption and the human capacity to survive and even thrive against the backdrop of war and chaos.

Twain & Stanley Enter Paradise


Oscar Hijuelos - 2015
    It was a labor of love for Hijuelos, who worked on the project for more than ten years, publishing other novels along the way but always returning to Twain and Stanley; indeed, he was still revising the manuscript the day before his sudden passing in 2013. The resulting novel is a richly woven tapestry of people and events that is unique among the author's works, both in theme and structure. Hijuelos ingeniously blends correspondence, memoir, and third-person omniscience to explore the intersection of these Victorian giants in a long vanished world. From their early days as journalists in the American West, to their admiration and support of each other's writing, their mutual hatred of slavery, their social life together in the dazzling literary circles of the period, and even a mysterious journey to Cuba to search for Stanley's adoptive father, TWAIN & STANLEY ENTER PARADISE superbly channels two vibrant but very different figures. It is also a study of Twain's complex bond with Mrs. Stanley, the bohemian portrait artist Dorothy Tennant, who introduces Twain and his wife to the world of séances and mediums after the tragic death of their daughter. A compelling and deeply felt historical fantasia that utilizes the full range of Hijuelos' gifts, TWAIN & STANLEY ENTER PARADISE stands as an unforgettable coda to a brilliant writing career.

Swimming in the Congo


Margaret Meyers - 1995
    

The Brass Go-Between


Ross Thomas - 1969
    Ives soon finds himself involved in a dangerous game. Reprint. PW.

Gogo Mama


Sally Sara - 2006
    They include a genocide survivor from Rwanda; a pygmy who lives in a grass hut at the base of a volcano in the Congo; Zanzibar's most famous living diva; a former child soldier from Liberia; a grandmother fighting AIDS in South Africa; a freed slave from Ghana, who as a child was given to a priest as a sacrifice for crimes committed by an ancestor; a famous Egyptian belly dancer turned movie star; and a pioneering midwife from Timbuktu. The women speak frankly about their astonishing lives, past and present, in some of the most hostile and exotic parts of the continent.This book is a journey across Africa, in all its complexity – from the townships of Johannesburg, to the back alleys of Zanzibar; from the frontline of the war in the Sudan, to the nightclubs of Cairo. It is a vivid, illuminating and often haunting composite picture of an extraordinary continent, in the words of the people who know it best.

Payback


Mike Nicol - 2008
    Set in Cape Town at the turn of the 21st century this crime novel's protagonists are two former arms smugglers turned security operators who offer protection to the rich and famous doing business or holidaying in the city.

My Husband's Wives


Faith Hogan - 2016
    A heart-warming story of love, loss, family and friendship. A compelling debut that fans of Freya North will love. Paul Starr, Ireland's leading cardiologist dies in a car crash with a pregnant young women by his side. United in their grief and the love of one man, four women are thrown together in an attempt to come to terms with life after Paul. They soon realise they never really knew him at all. The love they shared for Paul in his life and which incensed a feeling of mistrust and dislike for each other, in his death turns into the very thing that bonds them and their children to each other, forever. As they begin to form unlikely friendships, Paul's death proves to be the catalyst that enables them to become the people they always wanted to be.

Heart of Africa


Loren Lockner - 2014
    Her hired guide, a displaced and tough Zimbabwean named Peter Leigh, opens up a whole new world for her, full of love and adventure. Unfortunately their wonderful holiday is brutally sidetracked when they are accosted by ruthless carjackers and Peter and Mandy become hopelessly lost inside the rugged Kruger National Park. Can the two new lovers ever find their perilous way back to civilization, as they struggle to avoid lurking lions, raging bush fires, and murderous poachers in the heart of Africa?

Amie: An African Adventure


Lucinda E. Clarke - 2014
    She was happily married and she had her future all planned out. They would have two adorable children, while she made award winning programmes for television. Until the day her husband announced he was being sent to live and work in an African country she had never heard of. When she came to the notice of a Colonel in the Government, it made life very complicated, and from there things started to escalate from bad to worse. If Amie could have seen that one day she would be totally lost, fighting for her life, and enduring untold horrors, she would never have stepped foot on that plane

The Native Commissioner


Shaun Johnson - 2004
    He prided himself on furthering relations between communities, speaking several tribal languages fluently and developing a reputation as a man to be trusted and sought after for help and advice. With a thriving young family, a devoted wife and a quick succession of promotions, George is proud of everything he has achieved so far, in particular the understanding he is fostering between whites and blacks. Then, in the wake of the 1948 elections, George feels a shift in the Native Affairs Department's agenda. As he is shunted from one outpost to another, his role becoming ever more hopeless, his place in South Africa's future increasingly hazy, he feels the weight of his powerlessness and finds himself fighting off a crippling depression. "The Native Commissioner" is a heart-wrenching portrayal of a kind and conscientious man who felt himself cast adrift under the weight of South African apartheid.

Bone Meal for Roses


Miranda Sherry - 2016
    The garden saved her.Poppy was six years old when she was rescued from her abusive mother and taken to her grandparents' farm to recover. There, under a wide South African sky, Poppy succumbs to the magic of their garden. Slowly, her memories fade and her wounds began to heal.But as Poppy grows up into a strange, fierce and beautiful young woman, her childhood memories start to surface. And then a love affair with a troubled older man explodes her world...