Dance of the Jakaranda

Set in the shadow of Kenya's independence from Britain, Dance of the Jakaranda re-imagines the rise and fall of colonialism, and the circumstances that brought races together to lay the railroad that heralded the nation's birth. The novel traces the lives of three men: preacher Richard Turnbull, colonial administrator Ian McDonald and Indian technician Babu Salim, whose lives intersect when they are implicated in the controversial birth of a child. The novel is anchored in the African storytelling tradition, its language a dreamy, exalted and earthy mix that creates new thresholds of identity.