Through the winter and into the spring, my reading has focused on literature of resistance and post-colonial discourse. While most of it has been academic in nature (think Fanon, Cesaire, and Toby Green’s excellent history FISTFUL OF SHELLS) I’ve taken some time to explore young adult fiction emerging in response to crises that grow out of displacement. This is one of the first such books I read.
Tina and her mother fled Congo years ago and settled Kenya as refugees. Tina’s mother finds work with the Greyhill family and it is in the Greyhill family home that she is shot and killed. It is clear who murdered her mother. The problem is that she can’t prove it, and even if she could who would listen to her? The Greyhills are respected, wealthy, and corrupt. But Tina has grown up on the streets and with some unexpected help must find justice – and vengeance – for the mother she lost.