If you need any proof that the most interesting books being published in Australia come from small publishers, look no further than Serengotti, by Eugen Bacon, a new release from Transit Lounge. The striking cover design by Peter Lo is just the beginning...

Eugen Bacon is an African-Australian writer who has been attracting international attention for her powerful writing. She is well-known for her award-winning fantasy and horror fiction, (see her website) but I did not discover her adventurous style until I came across her short fiction collection Danged Black Thing (2021, see my review).

Serengotti also showcases her playful side. I'm not sure, but the title is (I'm guessing) a play on words, one which sent me exploring online (perhaps as the author hoped it would). The Serengeti is a geographical area of Tanzania, (which is where the author was born). Its Wikipedia page has very little to say about the people of that area, only that successive catastrophes devastated the Maasai who migrated there in the early 20th century and have since been relocated to the Crater Highlands in Northern Tanzania. Today the Serengeti is a haven for wildlife, especially lions. WP (lightly edited to remove unnecessary links and footnotes) says:

The Serengeti hosts the second largest terrestrial mammal migration in the world, which helps secure it as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa and as one of the ten natural travel wonders of the world.

Even this brief foray into exploring the Serengeti has shown me that dislocation, trauma and tragedy in Africa are not always the result of war.

Serengotti is not speculative fiction: it's sited very much in the here and right now. It has a sombre message, and one that provokes a thoughtful reader to consider more deeply what it means to be African in origin, in Australia, and how best we might support those who are damaged by their experiences. But Ch'anzu, the novel's narrator, is often laugh-out-loud funny.

Whatever work you want to put on your project is waste. You're distracted pretty much. Your mind is buzzing with every what else. You think of Valarie — what's going on? Why isn't she answering your calls? You think of Scarlet, but your thoughts about her are oddly connected in a good way to inflation. The dismal world economy and all that ... being solo has its merits. Imagine saying to a potential paramour puckering up for a pash: 'Mate, you gotta kiss softly. Seen the price of lip balm? Gobble my whole damn mouth, and I'll have to break out more of that bitch-prized balm.' (P.165)

Chuckling, the reader turns the page, and Bacon undercuts her own jokes.

You laugh aloud at this. Yep. Trying to be Dame Edna or what? (p.166)

Ch'anzu has been dumped (by Scarlet) so she is suddenly dealing with a broken heart on the same day that she gets the sack. She rebounds by upending her life altogether. She leaves behind her stylish South Yarra apartment and takes up Valarie's offer of an intriguing job in Serengotti, a gated community outside Wagga Wagga in rural NSW. It is a community of Africans who have come together to provide familiarity and support for people among them who are scarred by the experiences that made them refugees. Moraa's Black Soul restaurant serves an appetising African menu; burials and wakes (#NoSpoilers) are conducted in culturally familiar ways, and (run by twin elders and traditional healers Tau and Lau), there's a counselling service that blends traditional ways of thinking with contemporary counselling skills.

Ch'anzu's new job is an element of the innovative way that this community tackles trauma.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/06/21/serengotti-2023-by-eugen-bacon/ ( )