Hafsa Zayyan

Race, religion, politics, wealth - the main topics of this novel and I am not comfortable with any of them, and did not feel any empathy with the characters. However, the background of Ugandan history, the expulsion of people of Asian heritage by Idi Amin, are part of my own memories as I have lived through that period when they came to UK; I had a young and charming Ugandan-Indian colleague at one point, who had never been to Gujerat or even to Uganda, but who cultivated his Indian heritage (admitting he was more Indian than any other Indians...) It was very interesting to learn about the cultural divide between the Asians who became wealthy traders and the lowly Ugandans who worked as their servants.

The book is written in alternating chapters - the present-day narrative of Sameer, a hard-working young company lawyer whose family live in Leicester and who is offered a job in Singapore. The events take place mostly in the time of leave he takes before going to Singapore, when he decides to visit the country his grandfather Hasan was forced out of. The other chapters consist of letters written by Hasan to his beloved but dead wife, documenting the coming to power of Idi Amin, his citizenship problems and how he eventually managed to reach his family in Leicester, abandoning his enterprise and house to Abdullah, his black Ugandan colleague and friend a rare and unusual relationship considering the racial prejudice. The letters are more of a tool to inform the reader, rather like a diary, as he tells his wife things she would know, like the layout of their house, but at least they are written in the past tense.

Despite the work of Bapa, who is mentioned in the Acknowledgements as spending days "pouring [sic] over the manuscript in painstaking detail to make sure every word was right" there are some typos.

I am rather baffled by the design chosen for the cover: abstract brushstrokes in primary colours that seems more like one of the paintings Mrs Shah has on her walls rather than an illustration of "all birds of Uganda" - which do appear in the story and make a very appropriate title. Well maybe the paperback will have some Ugandan birds on it.

The author (I saw her online at the Hay Festival) is a young, well-educated dispute resolution lawyer of mixed background, very impressive; this is her debut novel and quite an achievement, even if I have been a bit critical about it.… (mere)