The People of Ostrich Mountain

Githaiga’s tender if plodding debut explores nationhood and colonization via the story of a Kenyan woman and her supportive teacher. In 1952 Kenya, during a national state of emergency, 14-year-old Wambui’s father sells his favorite goat to pay for her train fare to the elite boarding school, Alliance Girls, where she’s gained admission. Wambui is gifted in math and her teacher, Eileen Atwood, an English missionary from Surrey, has high hopes for her. Instead, Wambui marries a shopkeeper in order to support her family. Githaiga then flashes forward to tell the story of Wambui’s son, Raymond, a doctor in Chicago, who is confronted with racism and prejudice; and Eileen, who, after more than 40 years at Alliance Girls, is fired and forced to return to England, where she does not feel at home. Githaiga’s heavy-handed approach can be distracting from the narrative, with superfluous footnotes and translations of well-known phrases (such as “hakuna matata”). And though the characterizations tend toward the simplistic (the saintly Eileen versus Raymond’s racist colleagues, for instance), the story feels genuinely heartfelt. Those who possess little familiarity with postcolonial East Africa will be the best audience for this sweeping tale. (Self-published)