This strange novel sat on my bookshelf for very long. It was given to me in New York by someone who has downgrading and followed me to Africa. I kept it because I could not obtain it in ebook form and because I wanted to read more from African writers. Now that I am relocating it came to my attention as a book I need to read before I decide to give away or discard and on the whole I am glad I did.

The book is about a competent medical doctor who is in the middle of a midlife crisis. His obsession with the daughter of a friend is tragi-comic, and so are the lengths he goes to in justifying and explaining her behaviour. For me it shone a bright light on how the emotional aspect of life can cast a shadow on a professional career, and relegate it, momentarily, to something unimportant. Even for a doctor whose work can spell life or death for his/her patients. The characters are laughably human in their frailties and emotions and the story is relate-able enough to keep going.

There is no genre that really fit, except a slice of life tragi-comedy. It is not a love story in the traditional sense, just a cautionary tale about middle age, the shifting landscape of longing and unrealised dreams, and the silver lining that is at the heart of every predicament. ( )