Shamisa doesn’t remember much if her her life in Zimbabwe. She is then moved to Slough, with her parents. Her journalist father moved to enable him to continue his work. When the family is forced to return to Africa she desperately misses the only friends she has ever known. When they don’t keep in touch she can’t understand their lack of contact, especially as she thinks that they must realise what she is suffering following her father’s sudden death in a car crash. After his death she would like to return to england, but she hasn’t got the right paperwork and so can’t. Instead she iloges to boarding school. She makes a good friend. Who reminds her that it was through his journalism that her father had offered people hope, reminding them that “hope is our only wing out of a stormy gale….”
This is a lesson which, for a long time, she finds hard to accept, believing that hope is a dangerous thing, something which leads only to further hurt and disappointment. However, both girls must confront their fears, come to terms with things. This book is set in a time where it is a daily struggle to afford food, to gain access to housing and healthcare and to cope with an erratic electricity supply. The author does a good job to convey a very moving story in a difficult period of time. This may be a short novel but it is so worth rrading.
This is a lesson which, for a long time, she finds hard to accept, believing that hope is a dangerous thing, something which leads only to further hurt and disappointment. However, both girls must confront their fears, come to terms with things. This book is set in a time where it is a daily struggle to afford food, to gain access to housing and healthcare and to cope with an erratic electricity supply. The author does a good job to convey a very moving story in a difficult period of time. This may be a short novel but it is so worth rrading.