Books Set in Africa: Kenya

The Lioness, by Chris Bohjalian (2022)

 

This novel takes place in 1964 in East Africa, at a time when there was considerable violence in the continent.  Kate Barstow, a wealthy A-list Hollywood actress had just married David Hill, a struggling art gallery owner.  They were on a safari honeymoon in the Serengeti along with several of their closest friends.

 

David’s gallery isn’t doing well, and he is well aware that his wife is the main breadwinner.  After all, she is funding the trip for everyon ethe safari.  David’s father also holds some ambiguous position with the CIA, which adds to the political intrigue.

 

Kate’s inner circle, who are on the safari include her brother and sister-in-law, her best friend (a minor Hollywood actress) and her husband, Kate’s publicist, her agent and another fellow actor.  Their local guide is a big game hunter, who had to change is focus from clients who were more interested in shooting animals to clients more interested in shooting photographs.

 

While there were political uprisings in the Congo, the safari party has been assured that they will be perfectly safe in East Africa.  Unaware that there are political rumblings throughout the continent, the party seems oblivious to their surroundings.  They are luxuriating in the extreme pampering they are experiencing on their safari.

 

After enjoying a few spectacular days on the safari, in which the African porters tend to the company’s every need, things take a drastic turn.  Suddenly, they are caught in a kidnapping gone wrong.  Russian mercenaries burst upon their camp and separate the American tourists into smaller groups.  Immediately, one of their guards is shot and killed.

 

The novel goes back and forth between the events unwrapping in the kidnapping, and the events leading up to the trip.  The reader gets to know the background stories behind each tourist.  Before embarking on the trip, they knew of the potential dangers in the African plains but believed themselves to be in capable hands.

 

What is the motive of the kidnapping?  Is it money?  Who is behind the kidnapping?  Who has the most to gain?  What is the importance of David’s father?

 

We know from the first page, that very few of the party will survive, we just don't know who.  While I enjoyed most of the book, the ending left me wanting.  Why did one of the captors confess to the rationale of the kidnapping?  This was done in a manner that didn’t fit with the rest of the novel.

 

I find that this author often wraps up in novels quickly in a way that doesn’t fit with the rest of the book.

Read:  February 11, 2023

3.5 Stars

Books Set in Europe; Tuscany, Italy

The Light in the Ruins, by Chris Bohjalian (2013)

 

The action of the novel The Light in Ruins, takes place in the last years of World War II in Tuscany, Italy and again 10 years later.  The novel opens with the murder of Francesca Rosati in the 1950s.  She had formerly been the aristocratic wife of a wealthy family in Tuscany.  She was found with her throat cut and her heard removed.  Soon thereafter, another member of the family is murdered in a similar MO.

 

Detective Serafina Bettini was assigned to investigate Francesca’s murder.  When another member of the Rosati family is murdered in a similar manner to Francesca, Sarafina believes there is a link which is related to the family’s activity during the War.  The Rosati family had been coerced to host Nazi and Fascist forces during the final days of the War.

 

On the Rosati estate were underground ancient Etruscan ruins and tombs.  Filled with ancient artifact, the Nazi’s professed an interest in the relics, but had an ulterior motive of sending the valuables back to Nazi leaders.

 

Serafina, who had been a partisan during the War, suffered severe burns, the scars of which caused her to be self-conscious.  Her investigation brings her to the Rosati estate, which triggers vague memories of her participation during the War.

 

During the final days of the War, the Rosatis family was forced to host the Nazis and the Fascists.  Ancient Etruscan ruins and underground tombs were located on the grounds of their estate.  The Nazi’s profess an interest in the tombs but have an ulterior motive of sending valuable relics back to their leaders.

 

Meanwhile, Cristina Rosati, the 18-year-old daughter, fell in love with a Nazi soldier.  This did not endear her to her family or to the local villagers.

 

Serafina’s investigation of the murders forces her to face her own ghosts from the war.  I didn’t find the ending completely satisfying, but the novel held my interest.

 

Read:  September 14, 2022

 

3.5 Stars

Books Set Globally: Dubai, America and Italy

The Flight Attendant, by Chris Bohjalian (2018)

The novel begins when Cassie Bowden, a flight attendant in her light 30s, awoke in a strange hotel room in Dubai next to the bloody body of Alex Sokolov. Cassie was a binge drinker who experienced frequent black-outs whenever she drank.  Upon seeing the dead Alex, she briefly wondered whether or not she killed him during one of her black-outs.  She tried to recall the events of the previous evening, but remembered only that she had dinner with Alex and returned with him to his hotel instead of the hotel where the other flight attendants were housed.  She vaguely recalled that a woman named Miranda joined them briefly in Alex’s hotel room.

Instead of contacting the authorities, she quickly dressed and returned to her hotel, discarding any potential evidence of the night along the way. Upon joining her flight crew, she began her series of lies.  Alex had been on the flight from New York to Dubai, which is where Cassie first met him. By the time the return flight arrived in New York, his body had been discovered, and because Alex was an American, the FBI wanted to interview the crew members on his original flight.

Cassie realized that she could be in legal trouble so contacts a lawyer recommended by the flight crew’s union.  When interviewed by the FBI, Cassie blurted out that she had spent the night with Alex, but lied saying that he had been alive when she left his room.  

Alex was a hedge fund manager, with ties to Russia.  Could there be more to his story that Cassie knew?  Why was the FBI so interested in Alex?  And what of Miranda?  What was her relationship with Alex?

This was a very quick read and entertaining until the last couple of chapters. The novel then went off the rails with a very bizarre ending that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Read: August 15, 2018

3.5 Stars

Books Set in the United States: New York State

The Guest Room, by Chris Bohjalian (2016)

This novel is about sex trafficking.  It is a timely topic as several organizations that I belong to have begun to advocate for stronger legislation to prevent the selling of young girls.

The novel begins when Richard Chapman agrees to host a bachelor party for his wild younger brother in his (Richard's) home.  The brother, Philip, has his friends arrange for a stripper to be the "talent" at the party.  Two girls and their guards show up for the party.  At the end of the night, the guards are dead and the strippers are gone.

The story primarily follows Alexandra, one of the strippers.  We learn that she is Armenian and as a young girl had dreams of becoming a ballerina.  When she is 15 years old, her mother dies.  Her mother's boss convinces her grandmother that Alexandra should go to Moscow for ballet training.  She leaves her grandmother and goes to Moscow with big dreams.  That first night, however, she is brutally raped and threatened that if she tries to leave, her grandmother will be harmed.

She and other girls like her are trained to be "courtesans", but are kept in virtual slavery.  Alexandra is sent to America with the promise that she can be free after working for only 2 or 3 years.  Hence, her being sent to the bachelor party.

The novel goes back and forth between Alexandra and the aftermath of the murders at the party.  It depicts a fairly accurate picture of the sex slave industry.  Chris Bohjalian is an excellent writer.

Read: December 22, 2017

4.5 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Vermont

The Sleepwalker, by Chris Bohjalian (2017)

I generally like books by Chris Bohjalian. This one, however, is not one of his better novels. 

Annalee Ahlberg has a genetic condition that makes her prone to sleepwalking. It has gotten mostly under control, but is apt to happen when her husband is away and she is alone at night. When she goes missing when her husband is away, her two daughters become worried. 

As the police begin their investigation, the older daughter, Lianna begins to fall for Gavin, one of the detectives. He is about 12 years older, and was friends with Annalee because he, too, was a sleepwalker. 

At first there is no body. Since Annalee disappear at night, she is believed to have been sleepwalking. She is believed to have fallen into the river and drowned. When her body is found, the coroner determined drowning was not the cause. Was it an accident or murder. 

*****spoiler alert*****

This probably was not the book to read so soon after my mother died, especially in a car accident. 

Read:  March 22, 2017

2.5 Stars. 

Books Set in Asia: Syria

The Sandcastle Girls, by Chris Bohjalian (2012)

This novel tells of the Armenian genocide during World War I as told through the eyes of a young American woman, Elizabeth, who went to Syria in 1915 intent on assisting in the hospitals.  There she meets a young widow, Arman, who is Armenian engineer.  He lost his wife and baby daughter in the slaughter.  Elizabeth writes of conditions in Aleppo where many of the Armenian refugees pass through.  Arman joins the British Army and experiences the horrors of the war in Gallipoli.

Interspersed throughout the novel is the adult granddaughter of Elizabeth and Arman who becomes interested in her family history and tracks down her grandmother's writings.

Read: November 26, 2015

5 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Vermont

Secrets of Eden, by Chris Bohjalian (2010)

Another novel about domestic violence.  This book was much better than The Hurricane Sisters, however.

The novel follows the alleged murder-suicide of Alice and George Hayward from four different perspectives.

4 Stars

Read:  June 28, 2014

Books Set in the United States: New England

Before You Know Kindness, by Chris Bohjalian (2004)


 Read: March 16, 2012

Books Set in Europe: Germany and Poland

Skeletons at the Feast, by Chris Bohjalian (2008)

Skeletons at the Feast is the first book by Chris Bohjalian that I have ever read. I was quite taken by this book and the author’s writing style. This novel takes place at the end of World War II and describes the flight of the Germans from Prussia as the Russian army invades. The author gained access to the diary of a neighbor’s grandmother who had experienced first-hand the flight as the Russian army marched through Poland.

The novel tells the story from three perspectives ~ a wealthy German family living in Prussia traveling with a Scottish POW caught behind enemy lines; Cecile, a Jewish woman in a concentration camp; and a renegade Jew who essentially wills himself to survive the war.

The Emmerich’s, the German, tried to ignore and downplay the horrific events of the war. Living on the family estate are Mutti, the mother, Rolf, the father, their 18-year old twins, Anna and Helmut, and 10-year old Theo. Their oldest son is already off fighting for the Reich.
Mutti convinces herself that the German cause will prevail. She has hung a portrait of the fuehrer in her parlor, but apparently doesn’t fully understand or appreciate what the fuerher stands for. Rolf, however, has a better understanding of what is going on. He convinces his wife that they must flee to Germany before the Russian army reaches their country estate. He and Anna tell Mutti that they have buried the family silverware and will retrieve it when they return. In fact, however, in the middle of January 1945, the ground is too frozen solid. Both Anna and her father know that returning to the family home is not a reality.

The family gathers what belongings it can and sets off. Traveling with the Emmerich's, although hidden under the food supplies in their wagon, is Callum Finella, the Scottish paratrooper and prisoner of war who had been assisting on the family farm. Their motive for taking Callum, however, it not altogether altruistic. The father hopes that by having the POW with them, Callum will buy them safety from the Allied army. Unbeknownst to the rest of the family, Anna and Callum have become lovers. Soon, however, the father and Helmut decide to turn around to fight the Russian army. Mutti, Anna Theo continue on alone towards Germany.

A second perspective of the events is Cecile, a French Jewish prisoner in a concentration/work camp. In the final months of the War, the Germans attempted to erase signs of the concentration and work camps. Cecile was in a group of women who were marched from such a camp. Cecile came from a privileged family who attributed her survival to her hiking boots.

The novel also follows Uri Singer. He and his family had been rounded up and forced into a rail car for transport to Auschwitz. Uri managed to escape and, after killing a Nazi soldier, passes as a German. Knowing that his family has likely been killed, Uri does everything possible to survive to tell their tale. He becomes a chameleon, changing names and identities with alarming frequency. He takes the uniforms and names of various German soldiers who he kills when they cross his path. Uri is obsessed with his sister, from whom he was separated from when they were forced into the rail car. He ultimately ends up joining the Emmerichs’ on their trek. Although he doesn’t reveal his true identity, he begins go find comfort with this German family.

Skeletons at the Feast explores questions not often seen in Holocaust novels. Did civilians really know what was going on in Germany? How much did they know, and how could they not take action? The author describes this chaotic period of World War II in a way I had not seen before. The characters are fully developed and react in ways very human ways when faced with such agonizing moral choices encountered during wartime.


Read: October 3, 2010.