China’s Second Continent

French, H. (2014). China's second continent : how a million migrants are building a new empire in Africa. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

 Publishers Weekly review:

Since Jiang Zemin’s state visit to Africa in 1996 and his subsequent call to Chinese businesses to “go out” in search of opportunities abroad, China’s trade with Africa has grown dramatically, today surpassing its trade with either Europe or the U.S. But China’s investments, including massive building projects, are less significant for this rapidly evolving relationship, according to this 15-country survey by veteran African correspondent French (A Continent for the Taking), than the significant flow of new Chinese immigrants—often pushed out by the pressure and oppression back home as much as lured by opportunity. In vivid first-person reportage, French explores this momentous phenomenon, while challenging assumptions about China and Chinese immigrants. Lively interviews with Chinese entrepreneurs, African workers, politicians, and others reveal an already advanced socioeconomic and political landscape. Casual racism, strife between Chinese employers and native African workers, grassroots protests against Chinese inroads into markets, and political demagoguery exist side by side. Contrary to China’s official disclaimers, this relationship — based on acquisition of resources but also the securing of new markets for Chinese goods — bears a striking resemblance to Western colonialism. The book will appeal to students of China and Africa, and anyone interested in the shifting contours of the global economy and its geopolitical consequences.

Inspector Darko Dawson

Wife of the gods : a novel

by Kwei J Quartey. New York : Random House, 2009.

Kirkus liked it (thought, for Kirkus, these are tame words): Move over Alexander McCall Smith. Ghana has joined Botswana on the map of mystery. Quartey's approach to detective work is less charming and more sociological than McCall Smith's, his setting more rural and susceptible to the ways of magicians. There's plenty of room for them both, and the newcomer is most welcome.

Black Mamba Boy

Mohamed, Nadifa. (2010). Black mamba boy. London: Harper Collins.

Mixed reviews.

Lorriane Adams, in the NY Times: Had she dived deeply into just one city in this atlas of misery, Mohamed might have told us more about what it is like to be a scavenger child in Africa than this novel does. Perhaps one day, with her considerable talents, she will write such a book.

Kirkus: With one glorious exception, an eccentric intellectual in Djibouti, the author shows little talent for characterization. Pulled this way and that, Jama reflects Mohamed's own indecision, torn between naturalism and magic realism.

On the other side:
Library Journal Reviews: A pleasure to read, with descriptive language that allows readers to envision themselves in the story, this novel shows a distinctly non-European way of life in mid-20th-century Africa that is captivating. Highly recommended.

Publishers Weekly Reviews: Mohamed's beautifully rendered debut

The Last Brother

Appanah, Nathacha. (2011). The Last Brother. Translated by Geoffrey Strachan. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux.

Inspired by the largely unknown story of 1,500 Jews who fled Europe only to be imprisoned in Mauritius from 1940 to 1945 after their ship was refused entry into Palestine (then under British rule), the novel recounts the heartfelt friendship between two boys: David, a Czech orphan, and Raj, an Indian-Mauritian grieving for the two brothers he lost in a flash flood.