Breathe To Read

Breathe To Read

Monday, May 27, 2019

Read The World - Guinea-Bissau - The Ultimate Tragedy

Book: The Ultimate Tragedy
Author: Abdulai Sila
Pages: 188
Book takes place in the country: YES
Author is from the country: YES
I have visited: NO


This is my 68th read for the year

I realized that I have read quite a few books in a row.  I did pick quite a few shorter books in a row.  I am going to pay for that later because I see I have quite a few in my backlog that are over 500 pages.  


This book takes place during the Portugese rule of Guinea-Bissau.  It starts with a young girl named Ndani who is looking for work as a maid.  She is going house to house until a couple finally decides to take her in.  The head of the house- Dona Deolinda - thinks Ndani's soul needs saving through religious intervention.  She treats Ndani more like a slave than a house maid.

Ndani leaves the service of this house when she becomes the wife of a village chief.  He is wealthy and he built a mansion and a school to impressed the Portugese administrators.  The village chief leaves Ndani when he finds out she isn't a virgin, and she falls in love with one of the teachers at the school.  What happens next is a series of problems that happen only because of the teacher's skin color.  

This is a good book. It is short, but I felt that it had enough time for character developement.  There is definitely a lot of political and racial undertones in the book that ALMOST overshadow the story.  But I do think they were necessary to reflect the feelings of the people in this area during the time the Portugese were there.

I definitely recommend giving it a read.  I am glad I found this one.

Stars: 4




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