The Camel Bookmobile - Hardcover

Hamilton, Masha

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297851810 ISBN 13: 9780297851813

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007

Synopsis

Fiona Sweeney wants to do something that matters, and she chooses to make her mark in the arid bush of northeastern Kenya. By helping to start a traveling library, she hopes to bring the words of Homer, Hemingway, and Dr. Seuss to far-flung tiny communities where people live daily with drought, hunger, and disease. Her intentions are honorable, and her rules are due to the limited number of donated books, if any one of them is not returned, the bookmobile will not return. But, encumbered by her Western values, Fi does not understand the people she seeks to help. And in the impoverished small community of Mididima, she finds herself caught in the middle of a volatile local struggle when the bookmobile's presence sparks a dangerous feud between the proponents of modernization and those who fear the loss of traditional ways.

About this title

About the Author

Masha Hamilton was a foreign correspondent for The Associated Press for five years in the Middle East, where she covered the intefadeh, the peace process and the partial Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. Then she spent five years in Moscow, where she was a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, wrote a newspaper column, "Postcard from Moscow," and reported for NBC/Mutual Radio. She traveled to Afghanistan in the spring of 2004 to report on the changing situation for women in prison, child brides, war widows and others. In 2006, she traveled in Kenya to research The Camel Bookmobile and interview drought and famine victims in the isolated northeast near the border with Somalia. Her first novel, Staircase of a Thousand Steps, was a Booksense pick. Her second novel, The Distance Between Us, was named one of the best books of 2004 by Library Journal. The Camel Bookmobile is her third novel.

From Publishers Weekly

Hamilton's captivating third novel (after 2004's The Distance Between Us) follows Fiona Sweeney, a 36-year-old librarian, from New York to Garissa, Kenya, on her sincere but naïve quest to make a difference in the world. Fi enlists to run the titular mobile library overseen by Mr. Abasi, and in her travels through the bush, the small village of Mididima becomes her favorite stop. There, Matani, the village teacher; Kanika, an independent, vivacious young woman; and Kanika's grandmother Neema are the most avid proponents of the library and the knowledge it brings to the community. Not everyone shares such esteem for the project, however. Taban, known as Scar Boy; Jwahir, Matani's wife; and most of the town elders think these books threaten the tradition and security of Mididima. When two books go missing, tensions arise between those who welcome all that the books represent and those who prefer the time-honored oral traditions of the tribe. Kanika, Taban and Matani become more vibrant than Fi, who never outgrows the cookie-cutter mold of a woman needing excitement and fulfillment, but Hamilton weaves memorable characters and elemental emotions in artful prose with the lofty theme of Western-imposed "education" versus a village's perceived perils of exposure to the developed world. (Apr.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0297851810
• ISBN 13: 9780297851813
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 308