Kololo Hill

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Pran, the dominant head of a family who is passionate and prideful of his family business, doesn’t believe in the soon-to-be-true rumours of this forced expulsion. The settings are vivid, visual images as result of the beautiful prose employed by the author and you feel as if you are transported along with the characters in their journey from Uganda to Britain. Every detail was enriching, I could truly imagine the scenery, the food (so tantalising) and the traditions they had built over the years.

This makes it a dramatic and gripping experience because just as we become familiar with the daily life of this family they are uprooted and flung into a new life in England. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting a great read, whether you were there at the time or had nothing to do with East Africa.Shah really brings to life the refugee experience, the mixed emotions that comes with being forced to leave behind everything you’ve ever known. Jaya, Pran’s mother, is the matriarchal head whose soft power chases to uphold the pride and dignity of her family while coping with the sudden loss of two men in her life—her husband who died from a fall after being threatened by soldiers and the houseboy, an unlikely companion, who disappeared without a word. Pran, having rescued the family business from his good-natured but woefully lackadaisical father Motichand, is at last approaching some semblance of economic success, giving the family the material comforts that some in the area can only dream about. Everytime I read historical fiction my heart breaks into a million pieces, history in many ways is a constant reminder that humans have been prejudiced to their own kind for reasons that cross the clear line of morality by whim or greed. Her silence about what she has witnessed may seem counterintuitive at first, until we realise that we have been placed in the midst of a situation where silence is the least dangerous of options.

As the book opens, Asha stumbles across bloody of evidence of the lengths Amin’s forces to which they would go. From the green hilltops of Kampala, to the terraced houses of London, Neema Shah's extraordinarily moving debut Kololo Hill explores what it means to leave your home behind, what it takes to start again, and the lengths some will go to protect their loved ones. I loved how the story focused in on Asha, Vijay and Jaya, three members of a family who find refuge in England. Vijay, who was born with a deformed arm is turned away from jobs and refused interviews, despite being more than capable and desperate to work. I'll be perfectly honest, before I read this novel I knew nothing of the expulsion of Asians from Uganda but upon finishing Kololo Hill, I feel well informed, but actually I think I'd now like to know more.Is it possible to really make a fresh start in a new country or is the draw of the known and familiar too strong? In all honesty, I was pretty ignorant about the history of expulsions of Asian minority from Uganda under the President of Uganda, Idi Amin.

there are definitely books like Guapa and Exit West that cleverly use an unnamed country as the setting, but Kololo Hill definitely isn't one of them. Before I begin this review, let me clear one thing- even with my rating, would I still recommend this book? distressing encounter in Kampala, to her struggling to plant new roots in the UK, Shah's characters are sympathetic as they are unpredictable. Until Idi Amin issues a decree expelling the country's Indian minority and giving them 90 days to leave the country.It's powerful how this novel prompts the reader to question how they would cope if suddenly forced to leave behind the only home they ever knew.

Their future is now, however, sealed, the future is in London, which of course is so different (think Arnos Grove and a Ford Cortina) to Uganda. All in all, this is a fabulous, beautifully written and fascinating read from a talented author to watch out for. The later half speaks about the changed lives of the family and their struggle coping in London to make ends meet; the fear, insecurity, lack of intimacy due to separation in the early months of marriage, loss of pride and the insolent reminders to “go back to your own country” by those around. Here, and throughout the novel, there is a beautiful symmetry of theme, reflected in both its macro and micro worlds.

For me, the setting and level of detail in the novel really helps bring out the story of the country, the history and its people. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The story follows the lives of a Ugandan Indian family, Motichand and his wife Jaya, their two sons, Pran and Vijay and Asha, Pran’s wife, and also their houseboy December an Acholi Ugandan, whose tribe was also being hunted by Idi Amin. Kenya had also made life very difficult for Asian business owners a few years earlier, but Amin took it further. Each character views life from a different lens, and their varied viewpoints add to the strength of the novel.