A British couple visiting Nigeria run into a girl on the beach and have to make a life changing decision, they tell the girl that if she is ever in England to look them up... years later she does.
Review:
This was a big book club book when it came out and I can see why but do not agree with it being so well reviewed and acclaimed. A compelling story with characters you feel compassionate about. That said when you invent characters that have hugely scaring back stories and you share those stories early in the book it is easy for a writer to create emotion in the reader - shock value and all that. It is not a "life changing masterpiece" as the hype says but it is a good (if a bit disturbing at times) story. I recommend it as beach or cabin reading if you are in the mood for an unique story.
7/10
"On the girl's brown legs there were many small white scars. I was thinking, Do those scars cover the whole of you, like the stars and the moons on your dress? I thought that would be pretty too, and I ask you right here please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived."
"Sad words are just another beauty. A sad story means, this storyteller is alive. The next thing you know something fine will happen to her, something marvelous, and then she will turn around and smile."
"Horror in your country is something you take a dose of to remind yourself that you are not suffering from it."
If you enjoyed this I recommend:
The Kite Runner
The Help
The Bonesetter's Daughter
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