Garden of the Lost and Abandoned: The Extraordinary Work of One Ordinary Woman and the Children She Saves

This compassionate portrait of Gladys Kalibbala, a Ugandan journalist in the capital city of Kampala, presents an extended look at a woman wired for altruism and forgiveness. Yu, a debut author and documentary filmmaker, covers four years of Kalibbala’s work profiling homeless children in “Lost and Abandoned,” her Sunday column for a national newspaper. The stories are heart-wrenching, variously involving AIDS, addiction, abuse, and grinding poverty. Kalibbala emerges as a generous soul and fierce advocate, reconnecting the children with family members, getting them into schools, and even setting up a small farm outside the city to raise funds and provide some children with a place to stay. Her personality and implacable determination mark every anecdote, most of which radiate an essential optimism even when the ending is not unqualifiedly happy. This is deeply researched personal journalism, but the focus is so close that a broader context—whether of Uganda’s history, the African AIDS crisis, or the struggles of developing countries in general—rarely comes through. Yu’s intense close-up on her charismatic heroine results in an inspirational narrative but neglects that story’s dense, complicated background. [em]Agent: Jin Auh, Wylie Agency. (Nov.) [/em]