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Rules of the Wild: A Novel of Africa
A mesmerizing novel of love and nostalgia set in the vast spaces of contemporary East Africa.
Romantic, often resonantly ironic, moving and wise, Rules of the Wild transports us to a landscape of unsurpassed beauty even as it gives us a sharp-eyed portrait of a closely knit tribe of cultural the expatriates living in Kenya today. Challenged by race, by class, and by a longing for home, here are "safari boys" and samaritans, reporters bent on their own fame, travelers who care deeply about elephants but not at all about the people of Africa. They all know each other. They meet at dinner parties, they sleep with each other, they argue about politics and the best way to negotiate their existence in a place where they don't really belong.
At the center is Esmé, a beautiful young woman of dazzling ironies and introspections, who tells us her story in a voice both passionate and self-deprecating. Against a paradoxical backdrop of limitless physical freedom and escalating civil unrest, Esmé struggles to make sense of her own place in Africa and of her feelings for the two men there whom she loves--Adam, a second-generation Kenyan who is the first to show her the wonders of her adopted land, and Hunter, a British journalist sickened by its horrors.
Rules of the Wild evokes the worlds of Isak Dinesen, Beryl Markham, and Ernest Hemingway. It explores unforgettably our infinite desire for a perfect elsewhere, for love and a place to call home. It is an astonishing literary debut.
Romantic, often resonantly ironic, moving and wise, Rules of the Wild transports us to a landscape of unsurpassed beauty even as it gives us a sharp-eyed portrait of a closely knit tribe of cultural the expatriates living in Kenya today. Challenged by race, by class, and by a longing for home, here are "safari boys" and samaritans, reporters bent on their own fame, travelers who care deeply about elephants but not at all about the people of Africa. They all know each other. They meet at dinner parties, they sleep with each other, they argue about politics and the best way to negotiate their existence in a place where they don't really belong.
At the center is Esmé, a beautiful young woman of dazzling ironies and introspections, who tells us her story in a voice both passionate and self-deprecating. Against a paradoxical backdrop of limitless physical freedom and escalating civil unrest, Esmé struggles to make sense of her own place in Africa and of her feelings for the two men there whom she loves--Adam, a second-generation Kenyan who is the first to show her the wonders of her adopted land, and Hunter, a British journalist sickened by its horrors.
Rules of the Wild evokes the worlds of Isak Dinesen, Beryl Markham, and Ernest Hemingway. It explores unforgettably our infinite desire for a perfect elsewhere, for love and a place to call home. It is an astonishing literary debut.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
39 people are currently reading
976 people want to read
About the author
Francesca Marciano
21 books277 followersFrancesca Marciano is an Italian novelist and a screen writer. She has lived in New York and in Kenya for many years. To date she has written three novels and two collections of short stories : “Rules of the Wild”, listed as one of the NYT notable books of the year, ”Casa Rossa”, “The End of Manners”, “The Other Language” shortlisted for the Story Prize in 2014 and "Animal Spirit". She’s currently living in Rome.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 162 reviews
June 3, 2015
It is an inexplicable, unrelenting ache for someone or someplace, so that even when you are in their presence you mourn their absence. It is a heart hunger to go deeper, to consume or be consumed by the object of your desire until it becomes a part of your blood. We don’t have a word in English that quite fits this feeling of longing for something that may never have existed in the first place, a spiritual anguish for the ideal. Toska might be the Russian equivalent; the Welsh hiraeth comes close, but that speaks more of place than person. But it’s really the Portuguese saudade that says it for me.
Portuguese writer Manuel de Melo defines saudade as: "a pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy." Rules of the Wild weeps and whispers of saudade. Saudade for East Africa. Saudade for impossible love.
Francesca Marciano takes us into the heart of a privileged enclave in Kenya, made up of white Kenyans and white expats, and shows us their layered lives that are both dependent upon and out of reach of black Africans. It is the early 90s, on the eve of war in Somalia and genocide in Rwanda. Despite Kenya’s vast territory and Nairobi’s millions, the white community clings and swirls in its own small orbit. These are the second and third generation sons and daughters of wealthy plantation owners, the jaded relief workers and journalists, the thrill seekers. And they are, like narrator Esmé—the Italian born-and-bred daughter of a celebrated poet— wanderers perpetually in search of a better “other.”
Esmé has chanced upon Africa, wandering in with a lover. Kenya’s heat and searing sun have broken through the haze of her grief over her father’s death and she decides to stay on, while her bewildered lover returns to Italy. She has come from the Old World, heavy with history and expectations, and finds weightlessness in a place where she can float above history and rules, if only because she is ignorant of them. And for a while a new lover, Adam—a second generation Kenyan of northern European descent who leads wealthy tourists on extravagant safaris—is her buffer against Africa’s unrelenting dangers. He adores her without expectation and slips through snafus with an irrepressible bonhomie. He is of this place, and yet still regards it with wonder.
Ah, but isn’t the title Rules of the Wild? The expat tribe Esmé joins maintains a complicated set of mores and customs and Marciano’s story reveals how it is to live in a place, but to never really be a part of it. The expat community feeds on itself for survival. As Esmé explains, ''We have very strict rules here. We sniff new entries suspiciously, evaluating the consequences that their arrival may bring into the group. Fear of possible unbalance, excitement about potential mating, according to the gender. Always a silent stir. In turn each one of us becomes the outcast and new alliances are struck. Everyone lies. . . . It's all about territory and conquest, an endless competition to cover ground and gain control.'' Esmé is horrified by the colonial attitudes and behaviors that pervade every connection between whites and blacks, yet she too gives in and follows the rules of engagement, after pointlessly trying to prove she is better than the jaded whites around her.
Esmé, despite her initial cool reserve and irony, and then her embrace of Adam’s protection, is still soul-hungry and lonely. East Africa has no need of her and perhaps that is why she falls so heedlessly in love with the place; it is like a lover who seduces and then leaves, and she clings to any sign that her love may be reciprocated. Marciano parallels Esmé’s unrequited passion for Africa with a doomed love affair. The character of Hunter Reed, a journalist with a nihilistic world view, becomes the narrative’s dark conscience, the voice that points out all that is wrong with the Western world’s meddling in African affairs, the one who brings the terrible realities of war and genocide into the expats' protected, rarefied world. Esmé becomes obsessed with his wild and cruel beauty, seeking in Hunter the same release and meaning she’d hoped to find in Africa.
Ultimately, however, Esmé cannot escape herself. No matter how different and challenging this new world is, she remains as she ever was. This is the core brilliance of this novel. Marciano understands the heart of the traveller—that insatiable quest for the new self in new places—and the deep disappointment when one turns around to find the old self has tagged along.
And yet, once a place works its way into your soul, you will never be able to leave. That song of saudade—the “pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy” plays in a continuous loop, a siren song that chants, “Come back, come back.” Rules of the Wild is a call and response to that siren song, a deft portrayal of how place can influence character, and a gorgeous, raw, loving homage to East Africa.
Portuguese writer Manuel de Melo defines saudade as: "a pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy." Rules of the Wild weeps and whispers of saudade. Saudade for East Africa. Saudade for impossible love.
Francesca Marciano takes us into the heart of a privileged enclave in Kenya, made up of white Kenyans and white expats, and shows us their layered lives that are both dependent upon and out of reach of black Africans. It is the early 90s, on the eve of war in Somalia and genocide in Rwanda. Despite Kenya’s vast territory and Nairobi’s millions, the white community clings and swirls in its own small orbit. These are the second and third generation sons and daughters of wealthy plantation owners, the jaded relief workers and journalists, the thrill seekers. And they are, like narrator Esmé—the Italian born-and-bred daughter of a celebrated poet— wanderers perpetually in search of a better “other.”
Esmé has chanced upon Africa, wandering in with a lover. Kenya’s heat and searing sun have broken through the haze of her grief over her father’s death and she decides to stay on, while her bewildered lover returns to Italy. She has come from the Old World, heavy with history and expectations, and finds weightlessness in a place where she can float above history and rules, if only because she is ignorant of them. And for a while a new lover, Adam—a second generation Kenyan of northern European descent who leads wealthy tourists on extravagant safaris—is her buffer against Africa’s unrelenting dangers. He adores her without expectation and slips through snafus with an irrepressible bonhomie. He is of this place, and yet still regards it with wonder.
Ah, but isn’t the title Rules of the Wild? The expat tribe Esmé joins maintains a complicated set of mores and customs and Marciano’s story reveals how it is to live in a place, but to never really be a part of it. The expat community feeds on itself for survival. As Esmé explains, ''We have very strict rules here. We sniff new entries suspiciously, evaluating the consequences that their arrival may bring into the group. Fear of possible unbalance, excitement about potential mating, according to the gender. Always a silent stir. In turn each one of us becomes the outcast and new alliances are struck. Everyone lies. . . . It's all about territory and conquest, an endless competition to cover ground and gain control.'' Esmé is horrified by the colonial attitudes and behaviors that pervade every connection between whites and blacks, yet she too gives in and follows the rules of engagement, after pointlessly trying to prove she is better than the jaded whites around her.
Esmé, despite her initial cool reserve and irony, and then her embrace of Adam’s protection, is still soul-hungry and lonely. East Africa has no need of her and perhaps that is why she falls so heedlessly in love with the place; it is like a lover who seduces and then leaves, and she clings to any sign that her love may be reciprocated. Marciano parallels Esmé’s unrequited passion for Africa with a doomed love affair. The character of Hunter Reed, a journalist with a nihilistic world view, becomes the narrative’s dark conscience, the voice that points out all that is wrong with the Western world’s meddling in African affairs, the one who brings the terrible realities of war and genocide into the expats' protected, rarefied world. Esmé becomes obsessed with his wild and cruel beauty, seeking in Hunter the same release and meaning she’d hoped to find in Africa.
Ultimately, however, Esmé cannot escape herself. No matter how different and challenging this new world is, she remains as she ever was. This is the core brilliance of this novel. Marciano understands the heart of the traveller—that insatiable quest for the new self in new places—and the deep disappointment when one turns around to find the old self has tagged along.
And yet, once a place works its way into your soul, you will never be able to leave. That song of saudade—the “pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy” plays in a continuous loop, a siren song that chants, “Come back, come back.” Rules of the Wild is a call and response to that siren song, a deft portrayal of how place can influence character, and a gorgeous, raw, loving homage to East Africa.
October 14, 2024
I've fallen head over heels in love with this author, both for her subject matter and the sizzling passionate voice she uses to write about them. This is the second novel of hers I've read.
Rules of the Wild is set among Caucasian society in Kenya, people of many nationalities, including several born and raised in Africa, who live, love, bicker and work within their own separate little world. Marciano's narrator repeatedly calls them the "white baboon tribe," depicting them with equal parts admiration, contempt, affection, and anthropology. I've lived among expat societies in Asia and Europe half my life, and recognize many of the truths she expresses with such tenderness and hilarity.
Beyond the setting, Marciano's most vibrant characters are mostly women in search of a place in which to belong. Esmé shows up in Nairobi without a plan, and feels instantly drawn to life among the white baboons--a self-declared outcast among other self-made outcasts. Of course, men and relationships figure heavily--and become perhaps a bit grating towards the end--but the novel isn't so much about seizing love as finding an extended family and a place to belong. It takes Esmé quite a while to reach that point, to feel at home in an unlikely place and to feel at peace with her longing to do just that. Therein lies the veracity and the drama of this fine literary novel.
Marciano is absolutely brilliant with dialogue, each character so well defined that I could hear the voices speaking out loud as I read.
The only slight problems I felt with this novel were, first, that the author seems to have tried to shoehorn in every event and issue that occurred in Africa at the time of writing--Rwandan genocide, wildlife poaching, overpopulation, and so on, which came out in one too many extended speeches.
Second, if this book is to be believed, every Caucasian woman who lives in Kenya is drop-dead fashion-model gorgeous, even if they hunt wildebeest for a living. Maybe I need to check out Kenya for a while.
Rules of the Wild is set among Caucasian society in Kenya, people of many nationalities, including several born and raised in Africa, who live, love, bicker and work within their own separate little world. Marciano's narrator repeatedly calls them the "white baboon tribe," depicting them with equal parts admiration, contempt, affection, and anthropology. I've lived among expat societies in Asia and Europe half my life, and recognize many of the truths she expresses with such tenderness and hilarity.
Beyond the setting, Marciano's most vibrant characters are mostly women in search of a place in which to belong. Esmé shows up in Nairobi without a plan, and feels instantly drawn to life among the white baboons--a self-declared outcast among other self-made outcasts. Of course, men and relationships figure heavily--and become perhaps a bit grating towards the end--but the novel isn't so much about seizing love as finding an extended family and a place to belong. It takes Esmé quite a while to reach that point, to feel at home in an unlikely place and to feel at peace with her longing to do just that. Therein lies the veracity and the drama of this fine literary novel.
Marciano is absolutely brilliant with dialogue, each character so well defined that I could hear the voices speaking out loud as I read.
The only slight problems I felt with this novel were, first, that the author seems to have tried to shoehorn in every event and issue that occurred in Africa at the time of writing--Rwandan genocide, wildlife poaching, overpopulation, and so on, which came out in one too many extended speeches.
Second, if this book is to be believed, every Caucasian woman who lives in Kenya is drop-dead fashion-model gorgeous, even if they hunt wildebeest for a living. Maybe I need to check out Kenya for a while.
April 29, 2010
Oh my God, I can't believe that this has become my favorite book so far. I can really relate with the main character, aside of course that we have the same name. And I deeply feel that I am going through the same situation as Esmeralda. I like the way she has described her feelings and experiences, like they were mine. I can fully sympathize with her thoughts, struggles and everything else.
This book will always stay with me.
I so love it!
--------------------
I have found my favorite writer and my favorite book all at the same time in Francesca Marciano‘s Rules of the Wild: A Novel of Africa.
Esméralda, a beautiful Italian lady, is out in search for love and a place to call home. Feeling lost and devastated after the death of her father, she flew from Naples to Nairobi to live with expatriates there.
In Africa, she was torn between two lovers. She thought she has found everything in Adam, a second-generation Kenyan and a safari-leader who, himself, is in love with the beauty of Africa. Until she met Hunter, an English journalist who is sickened by its horrors and continues to discover Africa’s darkest sides as his way of escaping from his own share of loneliness and bitterness.
Esmé explored the love she felt for two men. Adam’s lifestyle, she realized, does not and will not give her the fulfillment she needs. While Hunter, she thought, does not need someone like her to help him cope up with his feelings of horror and restlessness.
Every page is an exposition regarding the way of life in Africa, how everyday there is only one thing that matters: to survive. Francesca Marciano wrote it in a way that would make you hate Africa and love it all at the same time.
Marciano is a great writer showered with brilliance, talent and depth. Any human person who has deeper perception of life can sympathize with every line she drops.
http://flipthrough.wordpress.com/2010...
This book will always stay with me.
I so love it!
--------------------
I have found my favorite writer and my favorite book all at the same time in Francesca Marciano‘s Rules of the Wild: A Novel of Africa.
Esméralda, a beautiful Italian lady, is out in search for love and a place to call home. Feeling lost and devastated after the death of her father, she flew from Naples to Nairobi to live with expatriates there.
In Africa, she was torn between two lovers. She thought she has found everything in Adam, a second-generation Kenyan and a safari-leader who, himself, is in love with the beauty of Africa. Until she met Hunter, an English journalist who is sickened by its horrors and continues to discover Africa’s darkest sides as his way of escaping from his own share of loneliness and bitterness.
Esmé explored the love she felt for two men. Adam’s lifestyle, she realized, does not and will not give her the fulfillment she needs. While Hunter, she thought, does not need someone like her to help him cope up with his feelings of horror and restlessness.
Every page is an exposition regarding the way of life in Africa, how everyday there is only one thing that matters: to survive. Francesca Marciano wrote it in a way that would make you hate Africa and love it all at the same time.
Marciano is a great writer showered with brilliance, talent and depth. Any human person who has deeper perception of life can sympathize with every line she drops.
http://flipthrough.wordpress.com/2010...
July 1, 2019
A fine debut commercial novel about an Italian woman who decides, almost on a lark, to move to Kenya on her own. The protagonist’s first-person narration is more interesting than the woman herself; it was a good decision to have her look back in time with more wisdom than she lived her two years in Kenya. The novel is essentially a romance (with two men), but the writing is excellent and there are moments of beauty and wisdom throughout.
July 3, 2012
Read the paperback years ago and over time it has stuck with me. Picked up the hardcover edition yesterday, opened to a random page and started reading. I was entranced! The writing is quite skilled; honest, spare prose and beautifully descriptive, all at once. I would have to reread it to cover specifics and there isn't time right now, but I can see I will return to this book soon. This book has something for everyone - universal themes, colorful landscapes, flawed but lovable characters... but most of all well written. A pleasure to read, and read again.
August 19, 2023
Probablemente de las peores novelas que haya leído nunca. Y lo tiene todo: clasista, racista, machista... aunque reconozco que me he reído bastante con algunas de las ridiculeces que cuenta.
March 3, 2009
Cynical story about a group of shallow, narcissistic expats living in Kenya. Their trust funds allow them to lead the kind of aimless lives that are often shown in the movies.
That said, I enjoyed the book: great descriptions about Africa (both the beauty and the horror), relevant political undertones (colonialism, race, violence), and interesting plot. The main character, Esme, is a mixed-up young woman who makes questionable choices (and realizes the irony though seems helpless to affect change). She also has a detached way of looking at her life and her nonchalance can be frustrating. But, ultimately, I do believe she was interested in a certain amount of self-discovery and introspection.
This book is not for everyone. If you are looking for a meaningful book about what it is like to be white and living in Africa, this book is NOT for you. But, if you are looking for a contemporary and light read about living abroad, I recommend this book.
That said, I enjoyed the book: great descriptions about Africa (both the beauty and the horror), relevant political undertones (colonialism, race, violence), and interesting plot. The main character, Esme, is a mixed-up young woman who makes questionable choices (and realizes the irony though seems helpless to affect change). She also has a detached way of looking at her life and her nonchalance can be frustrating. But, ultimately, I do believe she was interested in a certain amount of self-discovery and introspection.
This book is not for everyone. If you are looking for a meaningful book about what it is like to be white and living in Africa, this book is NOT for you. But, if you are looking for a contemporary and light read about living abroad, I recommend this book.
April 2, 2008
I wouldn't say this was a GREAT book, but it managed to capture those feelings of being a little out of place, a little out of step, and somehow unsure of your own wants and needs. That really resonated with me when I read it...
March 1, 2012
This novel's setting -- late 20th-century Kenya, with the Somalian civil war, slaughter in Rwanda and a continent struggling with population problems -- is the attraction here. Francesca Marciano's characters run to stereotypes, uniformly attractive and young expats, with a few (white) natives added to the mix. They overindulge in drink and drugs and sleep around and, except for the journalists and a safari organizer, they don't do much else.
The main character, Esme, who narrates the story, spends most of the book waiting for a man or brooding over another man. She doesn't have any marketable skills but her style, and is fairly shallow, her protests to the contrary notwithstanding. She describes an epiphany in the African wild, but her life-changers are men, and all it takes, apparently is a glance, to alter course.
Marciano makes an effort to show the side of Africa that most of her characters overlook: a native cantina (the characters only seem to eat "English" fare), a garbage dump where people from the countryside make a living, wild Africa, other countries wracked by bloody tribal warfare). But with the exception of the journalists, the characters hold their noses, return to their enclaves and pour another drink.
The love stories leave a lot to be desired, too. There's a fair amount of generic grappling in the dark, but it's mostly implied. The couples don't seem to share much else.
The last scene seems to have been borrowed from the movie "Out of Africa," which might be a better entertainment choice.
The main character, Esme, who narrates the story, spends most of the book waiting for a man or brooding over another man. She doesn't have any marketable skills but her style, and is fairly shallow, her protests to the contrary notwithstanding. She describes an epiphany in the African wild, but her life-changers are men, and all it takes, apparently is a glance, to alter course.
Marciano makes an effort to show the side of Africa that most of her characters overlook: a native cantina (the characters only seem to eat "English" fare), a garbage dump where people from the countryside make a living, wild Africa, other countries wracked by bloody tribal warfare). But with the exception of the journalists, the characters hold their noses, return to their enclaves and pour another drink.
The love stories leave a lot to be desired, too. There's a fair amount of generic grappling in the dark, but it's mostly implied. The couples don't seem to share much else.
The last scene seems to have been borrowed from the movie "Out of Africa," which might be a better entertainment choice.
February 24, 2008
This book is kind of a tough one to review... it's definitely a worthy read, and maybe on a different day I would give it four stars. I had some false starts with it - not always a good sign for a novel, but in this case I blame my own schedule and competing claims on my free time. The fact that I was able (and not reluctant) to return to it after several rather long breaks is, I think, actually an indication that it had captured my imagination in some way.
The writing was very lovely, and I enjoyed the various details about Africa. I found the love-hate relationship that the white/expatriate community living in Kenya had with their adopted land/country/continent to be very believable - deeper and more complicated than might be expected from a story about Africa written by a European. The book does not try to claim a perspective that it does not "have a right to" (if such a thing can be said), but nevertheless, does not use that as an excuse to avoid wrestling with thorny issues.
I'm not always a fan of stories with protagonists like this one, that make me grind my teeth and throw up my hands. Still, I did care about Esmé enough to keep me very involved in her fate and hoping somehow for a happy end for her. I think if I had felt more understanding or sympathy with the main characters, I would have enjoyed this book even more. As it stands, it was a good and worthwhile read, and I felt that my horizons were broadened in at least some small way.
The writing was very lovely, and I enjoyed the various details about Africa. I found the love-hate relationship that the white/expatriate community living in Kenya had with their adopted land/country/continent to be very believable - deeper and more complicated than might be expected from a story about Africa written by a European. The book does not try to claim a perspective that it does not "have a right to" (if such a thing can be said), but nevertheless, does not use that as an excuse to avoid wrestling with thorny issues.
I'm not always a fan of stories with protagonists like this one, that make me grind my teeth and throw up my hands. Still, I did care about Esmé enough to keep me very involved in her fate and hoping somehow for a happy end for her. I think if I had felt more understanding or sympathy with the main characters, I would have enjoyed this book even more. As it stands, it was a good and worthwhile read, and I felt that my horizons were broadened in at least some small way.
September 1, 2011
Disclosure: my favorite voice in novels is the first-person narrative of a challenged female protagonist. But even if yours isn’t, I think you would be pulled in as I was by Rules of the Wild. Its vivid prose makes the outer world of modern Kenya and the inner world of a flawed, vulnerable young woman, Esme, into entrancing places we inhabit for a time, as we would a safari.
I can picture my friend Vicki reading Rules of the Wild and saying to me, “Why do you like Esme when she’s so materialistic, rarely has a job, and cheats on her boyfriend?” I’d have to say it’s because Esme owns that she is decadent, and that she suffers in direct relation to her excesses and mistakes. That keen an awareness is rare in a novel. Also, Esme’s instincts for social justice in a harshly bifurcated black and white culture redeem her character to a degree.
But I’m making it sound more up in the head than it is. Rules of the Wild is sensual, heartful, using the human body and the African mud, rain and animals as reference points as it takes us to wildish places that have unsettling rules. I see it as a vivid cautionary tale, depicting a life I would reject for myself, but am fascinated to witness on the printed page.
I can picture my friend Vicki reading Rules of the Wild and saying to me, “Why do you like Esme when she’s so materialistic, rarely has a job, and cheats on her boyfriend?” I’d have to say it’s because Esme owns that she is decadent, and that she suffers in direct relation to her excesses and mistakes. That keen an awareness is rare in a novel. Also, Esme’s instincts for social justice in a harshly bifurcated black and white culture redeem her character to a degree.
But I’m making it sound more up in the head than it is. Rules of the Wild is sensual, heartful, using the human body and the African mud, rain and animals as reference points as it takes us to wildish places that have unsettling rules. I see it as a vivid cautionary tale, depicting a life I would reject for myself, but am fascinated to witness on the printed page.
November 16, 2018
This is essentially the worst, shallowest romance book wrapped up with literary prose. I detested it. The superficiality and stereotypes that characterize bad romance are fine if presented as a fun diversion. But the same issues in a book apparently meant to be taken seriously are offensive. The book is deeply sexist. The main character, Esmé, thinks like a nineteenth-century stereotype; I was honestly startled by references to cars, and shocked by references to laptop computers. They aren't anachronisms—the novel is set in the 1990s—but they jolted me.
Esmé is profoundly troubled in ways that I don't know the author is even aware of, because her brilliant "epiphany" at the end is just more of the same. Utterly passive in every respect, utterly ignorant, men are inhuman sex objects, and life is a love story starring her.
Esmé is profoundly troubled in ways that I don't know the author is even aware of, because her brilliant "epiphany" at the end is just more of the same. Utterly passive in every respect, utterly ignorant, men are inhuman sex objects, and life is a love story starring her.
August 19, 2018
A visit to Africa has changed many lives whether by safari, charity, work or education. Some are so changed by Africa, they make it their home. The book explores relationships among a group of expats and the complicated countries, politics, wildlife and tribes of Africa. The book’s most beautiful passages are when the characters explore the notion of why they were so attracted to the freedom & vast African landscapes: getting lost versus discovering who you were all along. Maybe the characters are shallow & selfish, but be honest; that is a battle all mankind fights to break free.
July 6, 2016
I was disillusioned with the first half, trying to gauge if there was something much more significant than witnessing privileged expatriates and trust fund babies spend their time in Kenya hooking up and basically the stark indifference to the local culture.
P.S. Africa is a continent, not a country.
P.S. Africa is a continent, not a country.
February 25, 2024
Le pondría cinco estrellas como parodia
September 15, 2014
Yawn. Another book (see Kuki Gallmann,Isak Dinesen) about glamorous young ex-pats in East Africa: relentless bedhopping, temporary incursions into bwana-hood (they get to hire staff!), houses that inevitably and eventually burn down. They sleep with rugged, dusty men who run adventure companies, they drive massive vehicles, and they get diarrhea.They hang out with people like them, agonize when they can't find a "place for themselves" in African society, and then they fly home to their country of origin and write a book about it.
July 31, 2009
Picked this up out of desperation on safari and was expecting the worst as it said love story on the cover. I am impressed and loved the style. I think I may know a few of the characters perhaps too. Loved it.
December 23, 2015
This is probably the most intelligent and well-written girl-travels-and-meets-boy story that I've ever read. Marciano's writing is lush, sexy, and thought-provoking. Recommended!
August 20, 2017
Enjoyable read. While it presented as a story about relationships and love, it's really more about how a place can make you come alive.
November 15, 2020
En dejlig bog hvor beskrivelserne af Afrika og Italien er så gode at man både kan se, høre, smage og lugte oplevelserne (særlig Afrika). Når det så er mine yndlingsrejsemål bliver det ikke meget bedre.
Og så er handlingen spændende og overraskende. Både kærlighedshistorien og historien om problematikken mellem hvid og sort....
Jeg havde lidt svært ved at komme igang med bogen - starten måtte jeg tage to gange - personerne var lidt forvirrende, og da jeg var færdig med den, tog jeg lige starten een gang til, og så faldt alle brikkerne på plads.
Jeg tror jeg skal prøve at finde mere af forfatteren.
Og så er handlingen spændende og overraskende. Både kærlighedshistorien og historien om problematikken mellem hvid og sort....
Jeg havde lidt svært ved at komme igang med bogen - starten måtte jeg tage to gange - personerne var lidt forvirrende, og da jeg var færdig med den, tog jeg lige starten een gang til, og så faldt alle brikkerne på plads.
Jeg tror jeg skal prøve at finde mere af forfatteren.
February 28, 2025
I realised after a while I had read this before, years ago! It describes the European expat life in Nairobi in the 90s/2000s. Beautiful descriptions of the Kenyan bush, and skies, etc - with occasional glimpses of the poverty that is all around them but almost completely ignored by the protagonists. It is mostly a love story, the narrator torn between two very different men. For me it was a nostalgic read, remembering that although I didn't lead this kind of expat life, I did a long time ago, sometimes, see elephants drinking at sunset, fly in 6-seater planes over herds of impalas, and sit on wide verandas draped with bougainvilleaea, drinking coffee to the sounds of tropical birds - so, I enjoyed those memories!
August 21, 2019
I must have downloaded this novel when I was getting ready to go to Africa but never read it. It is more of a romance novel than I usually read but took me back to Africa, specifically Nairobi, Kenya in so many ways.
July 24, 2021
holy shit this book emotionally wrecked me the best way.
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June 21, 2020From the first pages I was annoyed by the privilege, racism and sexism in this book. The tone of the author suggests a feeling of superiority towards African culture. The continent and its people are portrayed passively, only existing to accomodate to white expats. These expats have nothing to offer: they are all 'beautiful white people' who flock to Kenya to settle down in a white suburban area and do nothing useful with their lives, snort all the drugs and drink all the booze while completely disregarding and even avoiding local culture. As for the sexism in the book: main character Esmé depends on men in all aspects of her life. Portrayed as an independent woman who’s looking for meaning, she is actually always driven by the things the men in her life do and always searching for someone to save her. None of this makes for an interesting story and in combination with the racist undertone I didn't make it past the first 60 pages. After reading some reviews, I can conclude the situation doesn't improve. Empty characters in an empty story, written by an empty mind (Africa is - not - a - synonym - for - Kenya). The only epiphany the author and her characters should have is that they desperately need to do some anti-racism work and check their privilege.
September 8, 2023
SO good.
March 7, 2012
This book has two distinct aspects that are very different. The main character and narrator is an Italian woman living in Nairobi which is the same as the author. She uses this book to provide a pretty good analysis of living in an expatriate "ghetto" in a developing country (lived that life so I have a good idea of what it's like) and make her commentary on major political events/issues such as apartheid, the anarchy and war in Somalia and especially the Rwandan genocide. This aspect of the book is pretty good reading. The plot, however, is sort of like a Barbara Cartland novel all love and aguish among a cast of characters where the men are handsome, dashing, brave and have macho jobs like "war correspondent" and "safari guide." Meanwhile, the women mostly paint their nails, go shopping and worry about their men. This book would have been more interesting had the heroine been more heroic.
February 8, 2017
I'd have loved to read this book in one sitting, at my leisure, under a shady tree during a hot afternoon, instead of some minutes before work, some minutes during lunch, some minutes before bed. The African landscape is very beautifully described in this book, that it's a pity to let your imagination rush through while reading it, instead of savoring every little detail and make them walk slow motion in your mind.
As for the story... well, it's just okay. Maybe it's because i'm not that interested about expats' life. It's more or less the same. Either they desperately try to belong or too wrapped up in their own little world and communities to care about their surroundings and the local people.
So... the 4 stars are for the wonderful description of the landscape.
As for the story... well, it's just okay. Maybe it's because i'm not that interested about expats' life. It's more or less the same. Either they desperately try to belong or too wrapped up in their own little world and communities to care about their surroundings and the local people.
So... the 4 stars are for the wonderful description of the landscape.
July 19, 2020
I loved this book. It was right up my alley - an ex-pat community filled with a revolving door of international characters set in an exotic and dangerous space (in this case, Kenya). Many books like this are international espionage mysteries, but this read more like a beautiful, haunting memoir. A lot less self-help than actual memoirs (like Eat, Pray, Love) and much more lyrical, intense and mournful. Marciano demystified the traveler's glamour while examining the elevated position that Westerners residing in third-world countries still hold. Her nuanced portraits of the haves and have-nots, and the conscious space to which we dedicate our continuing journey to understand these positions, was brilliantly executed.
November 6, 2007
I really enjoyed reading this book. It’s great for people who like expatriate stories. Romantic, sometimes a little far fetched but it’s easy to go with and get caught up in the lives of all the characters (who like their cigarettes.) The author does a good job of keeping sight of what’s going on in the country (via the journalist characters) contrasted with the “easy” lives of those not involved with the politics of Africa.
August 25, 2008
a read that you don't particularly need to spend too much time figuring out the nuances and subtleties of- they're all there front and center, presented to you on a bitter but beautiful platter by the author and her central female character. it surprises you every now and then, the depth and breadth of her voice and observations, but for the most part it is simply a good and entertaining read that you'll likely want to get to the end of.
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