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    The Memory of Love
    The Memory of Love
    The Memory of Love
    Audiobook20 hours

    The Memory of Love

    Written by Aminatta Forna

    Narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The Telegraph (UK) calls Aminatta Forna's Commonwealth Writers' Prize-winning tale an "affecting, passionate and intelligent novel about the redemptive power of love and storytelling." In the aftermath of Sierra Leone's 1990s civil war, British psychologist Adrian Lockheart comes to work at the Freetown hospital. There he meets a dying elderly patient who confesses to Adrian his past crimes of passion and betrayal. ". stunning and powerful ."-Booklist
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 14, 2011
    ISBN9781461846932
    Author

    Aminatta Forna

    Aminatta Forna is a former BBC reporter and has presented on various political and current affair programmes. She is a contributor to several newspapers including the Independent and The Sunday Times. 'The Devil that Danced on Water' was a runner-up for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2003 and she has acted as judge for various awards including the MacMillan African Writer's Prize and the Samuel Johnson Prize. Her most recent novel is 'Ancestor Stones'.

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    Reviews for The Memory of Love

    4.5/5

    22 ratings19 reviews

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    • 5/5
      What a beautiful and elegantly written book! One caveat that I would give is that because the story goes back and forth in time, as well as having several threads with different characters - the book can initially seem a wee bit confusing. But by the time I was about 60 pages into the book, I no longer had any difficulty with the nonlinear time, nor the who was whom It's a wonderful read on so many levels. The many strands of the story give us insight into different perceptions of several characters as to what happened both back in time and in the current time. One of the characters, Adrian, a psychologist who goes to Sierra Leone to assist in the war torn country helped me realize something that had never really occured to me. Possible small spoiler alert - it would seem that the author feels that those that have survived the Sierra Leone civil war are all suffering witha degree of PTSD. Perhaps that is true of anyone who has survived a war, at least for some time. One thing that really amazed me is how of all of the separate strands all came together by the end of the book. The Civil War is more a part of the background to the story - though an essential part of the story. The characters come to life so beautifully and fully . Truly a beautiful though tragic story -and yet Memory of Love does not get bogged down in sorrow.Like it's title, this book really is about love at it's heart. 4.75 stars from me. I'm still so carried away by the different characters' , the entire story -and the way that everything comes together in the end. I'm willing to bet that this book takes the Orange Prize for 2011. This is book that will stay with me for a long time.
    • 3/5
      This story about Sierra Leone during and after the war is compelling, but didn't grip me as much as I would have liked it to. I could not really relate to the three main characters, all males, and often did not understand their choices. Unfortunately, this didn't make reading this book a very enjoyable experience.
    • 4/5
      This book starts off very slow but gradually builds as the theme on which it is built becomes clearer. The Memory of Love is Set in Sierra Leone soon after the end of the civil war and has three major protagonists who each have their memory of love. Cole, the aged professor, Adrian, the pyschologist, and Kai, the surgeon. Their lives and loves intersect and the author narrates the book through them. While I was intellectually challenged by the idea behind this book, the love aspect kind of left me cold to be honest. However, I appreciate Aminatta Forna taking up the challenge of saying what she has to say, and what an important message it is too.
    • 4/5
      Shortlisted for the Orange Prize, The Memory of Love is the story of two love triangles. One is set in the chaotic post-colonial days of Sierra Leone, and the second takes place in the aftermath of the country's civil war. The story switches back and forth between the two time periods, and between the perspectives of three men. As each love triangle unfolds, and then the two become connected, we see the web of ways in which our choices impact the people we love.The story opens with Elias Cole relating the story of his life to a British counselor, Adrian, who is in Sierra Leone as a volunteer. Elias, we learn, was a young professor in love with a colleague's wife during the turbulent early 1960s. He tells a story of obsession, unrequited love, and betrayal, yet withholds something, even now, after all these years. As Adrian listens and tries to help Elias bring to light his true role in the events surrounding Julius and Saffia Kamara, Adrian's own life is in turmoil. Why is he here? What does he want to accomplish? As Elias's story unfolds, Adrian unwittingly plays out the same complex love triangle: he becomes obsessed with a woman who loves another and in the process betrays a friend.The third voice heard in the novel is that of a young surgeon, Kai. A victim of nightmares and insomnia, he immerses himself in his work and wonders if it is time to join his best friend in America, leaving behind the trauma of his country. Through Kai we learn of some of the brutal acts perpetrated throughout the war and the untenable position people are in now, with over 90% of the people suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. The decisions and actions of Elias, Adrian, and Kai represent groups of people: those forced to choose between personal suffering and collusion, those forced to live with horrible memories and the absence of hope, and those Westerners who come in behind the war wanting to help and leaving again as soon as their rotation is up. But the experiences of these three men are also very personal stories of loss, love, and memory.I found The Memory of Love powerful in the descriptions of how civilians and rebels are now living side by side with what Adrian calls "the fragmentation of the conscience". By focusing on the present and suppressing their memories, millions of people are trying to get by in modern Sierra Leone. But can people (and a country) heal if they remain internally fragmented? I also found of interest how the author treats the subject of Western aid workers. In the book, they are seen as people who come to pad their resume or ease their conscience, but without being asked to help and without understanding the people's needs or desires. These short-timers are ignored or despised, sometimes giving foreigners the impression that Sierra Leoneans are not trying to help themselves or improve the situation in their country. I wish the book had contained more history. Perhaps simply because of my own proclivities, I found that I had to read an online history of the war in order to fully understand and appreciate the novel. Dates, place names, and forces are alluded to, but much is left for the reader to either know or to skip, reading the novel more as a Everyman's experience of war and its aftermath. I also wish that the author had chosen to write from the perspective of some of the women in the book. There are some very strong female characters, but they are always described from the perspective of the men around them. I found that dissatisfying. It's a good book, but left me wanting more. I'm looking forward to discovering additional authors from the country.
    • 5/5
      This enchanting novel is set in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, at the end of the country's civil war that lasted from 1991-2002. Adrian Lockheart, a British psychologist who has left his family to pursue a more personally fulfilling career, is at the bedside of Elias Cole, a former university professor and dean who is nearing the end of his life. Adrian encourages Elias to share his story with him on weekly therapeutic visits , and Cole tells him about his career, including his friendship with Julius Kamara, another university professor, and his young wife Saffia, who Julius sees for the first time at a faculty gathering just before the successful Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. He is immediately entranced by her, and spends much of his spare time thinking of ways to get closer to her.The story of Elias and Saffia is interwined with Adrian's experiences in post-war Sierra Leone, along with his friendship with Kai, a talented young surgeon who has used Adrian's living quarters as a place to crash prior to the psychologist's arrival. The men become close friends, although Kai is clearly scarred by his experiences during the recent civil war, which he is unable to share with his friend. Adrian's primary interest is in diagnosing and treating victims of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and he cares for several hospitalized patients who appear to suffer from this problem due to the civil war. He attempts to get several of them to talk about their experiences, but few of these poor souls are willing or able to share their stories or accede to his treatment plans. His colleagues and Kai are respectful of his work, but they tell him that his methods have little chance to make any impact on the lives of his patients, due to the country's lack of resources and the different cultural beliefs about mental health. Elias is the only person who will talk freely about the past with Adrian, and through the life of the dying man and his relationships with Julius and Saffia he learns about the country's postcolonial history, including the devastating civil war that destroyed the fabric of the country and the will of thousands of Sierra Leoneans. Adrian falls in love with a local woman, whose ties to the other major characters provide a tension to and deeper understanding of their stories. As their relationship deepens, Adrian is forced to decide whether to stay in Sierra Leone, where he is loved and believes he has much to offer, while Kai agonizes over his long held desire to move to the United States where he can practice medicine and exorcise the internal demons that plague his dreams and affect his work.The Memory of Love is a stunning and deeply moving novel about love in its different forms, and how it can affect and be affected by greed, selfishness, personal ambition and war. The narrative is superb, and I found myself emotionally tied to the lives of the characters as much as any other book I've read in the past decade.
    • 5/5
      If there is a human emotion not woven into the tapestry of this well crafted novel, I don’t know what it is. The writing is exquisite. This is a journey in revelations of unnamed, concealed demons of the mind and subsequent behaviors. The characters are tangible, complex, independent and intertwined. The bonds of friendship, dependence and romantic love grow to varied levels of intimacy and many suffer betrayal. There is distrust, fear, sacrifice and soul searching. This is the story of war’s effects on the human psyche, the distortion of relationships, and the struggle for survival during peacetime in a nation with rampant PTSD.Adrian, an English psychologist searching for deeper meaning in his own life work, leaves his family and moves to an African country to help in that country’s post-war adjustment. Understandably, the country is skeptical of his motives and in its instability rejects his unwanted foreign involvement. Adrian eventually befriends a young native surgeon who is able to bring credibility to, and acceptance of, this alien’s attempts towards integration and healing. Nothing is easy. Though he is patient and persistent, Adrian’s gains are slow and torturous. He gently nudges out the horror stories of war and loss, explores the psychic defense mechanisms, and offers therapy to restore hope. And how does this experience affect him? He discovers things he never expected to find.This book is powerfully absorbing. It is heart breaking and tender. This is one you should not miss. The pages fly by… but it is not superficial. It makes you think.
    • 4/5
      An intriguing story of the connection between three people who change the life of Adrian,a psychologist who goe to Sierra Leone in the aftermath of the civil war to help victims of PTSD.The love stories were beautifully drawn but the book was spoilt for me with the epilogue. The ending did not ring true
    • 5/5
      I found this to be a superb, moving and thought provoking novel. The book dealt with the struggles of love, war, and the aftermath of both. It's a captivating human drama. Excellent
    • 5/5
      “People think war is the worst this country has ever seen: they have no idea what peace is like. The courage it takes simply to endure.” (Ch 34)The Memory of Love is set in twenty-first century Sierra Leone where English psychologist, Adrian, has taken a post in hopes of helping patients suffering from traumatic disorders precipitated by years of civil war. He develops a relationship with two patients whose stories relate the history of late 1960s Sierra Leone. The first patient is Elias Cole, a former professor who tells Adrian the story of his all-consuming love for a colleague’s wife and of the colleague’s subsequent, and suspect, disappearance. The second patient, Agnes, is lost in fugue; but eventually her narrative is pieced together to reveal her indelible courage to survive in the face of unspeakable loss. Meanwhile, Adrian becomes involved with a patient’s daughter which results in conflict with his African surgeon-friend, Kai. Pervading themes in the novel are loss, which has affected all of the characters; and hope, which Forna contends is sought by everyone, everywhere.The novel is beautifully written, if somewhat longer than I think it needed to be. My favourite quote, which showcases Forna’s exquisite prose and her gift for relating the human-connect which crosses all cultural boundaries, is from the first page: “I heard a song, a morning as I walked to college. It came to me across the radio playing on a stall I passed. A song from far away, about a lost love. At least so I imagined, I didn’t understand the words, only the melody. But in the low notes I could hear the loss this man had suffered. And in the high noes I understood too that it was a song about something that could never be. I had not wept in years. But I did, there and then, on the side of dusty street, surrounded by strangers. The melody stayed with me for years.” Highly recommended. Well worth the read!
    • 5/5
      This novel was such a wonderful surprise, I absolutely loved it. I found an ARC at a used book sale and then found out it was recently short-listed for the Orange Prize. I was just stunned at how beautifully Forna writes (considering how unknown she is here in the U.S.), about many things too (surgery, post traumatic stress, aging, love, lust, longing and loss). The amount of research had to be considerable. It is a fairly simple story/plot about characters with very complex emotional lives. It flashes from contemporary Sierra Leone (after the brutal civil wars there) back and forth to the lives of the characters during that turbulent time. The characters could not be more diverse. The are: 1) a dying professor (Elias); 2) a talented young orthopedic surgeon (Kai); and 3) a British psychiatrist (Adrian). There is quite a strong supporting cast, with people we learn about in the flashbacks who greatly influence the main ones. One of the more amazing things about this book is how convincingly Forna writes from a male perspective (including Elias in first person). I usually groan when a writer attempts this, but she may be the best I've encountered. The joy in this novel is the unfolding of events, the rich and turbulent history of the country, and the lives the characters live, leave and create amidst the chaos and pain left behind. The other joy is the writing. There were just so many times I wanted to quote this book, or just wondered at how beautifully/accurately she captured an emotion or feeling ~ despite the exotic local ~ in such a way I could totally relate. I was sad when it ended and it was just such a pleasure to get lost in this world. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Last night I completed The Memory of Love, an absolutely outstanding book about the days following the Sierra Leone civil war. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.What a beautiful book about a horrendous subject or rather subjects. So many really good story lines in The Memory of Love and all of them proved out to be very telling.There are so many lovely reviews on this book that I am not even going to attempt to review the book but I did love it. I cared about all of the characters, I laughed, I cried, I mourned, so many emotions are drawn out of the reader with this book.A couple of quotes:re: the study of PTSD on patients and civilians; "You call a disorder, my friend. We call it life.""So now his turn has arrived and he has never felt more conflicted. For here in this building where he barely has a moment to himself, he has never been so sure of who he is. He can walk he corridors, courtyards and wards blindfolded. Out on the streets he is recognised by his patients and he in turn recognises them. The change had occurred outside of his awareness. In this place of terrifying dreams and long nights, he knows who he is.""Sometimes I think that this country is like a garden. Only it is a garden where somebody has pulled out all the flowers and trees and the birds and insects have all left, everything of beauty. Instead the weeds and poisonous plants have taken over"The Memory of LoveI too, wonder why it did not win the Orange Prize. This is a spectacular read! I read a library copy but must buy my own. 5 stars +belva
    • 5/5
      For 'deep' books, I often like small stories because I feel they give the writer an opportunity to get to the heart of things I care about (think Room or Olive Kitteredge). This Orange Prize nominee is a many-charactered story traveling in time to both before and after the Civil War in Sierra Leone with many flashbacks to the war itself, but Forna certainly manages to get to the heart of things. She explores the nature of love, personal responsibility and the human ability to survive the unthinkable. Even with these grand subjects to consider, every character comes alive on the page as does Sierra Leone itself.Absolutely stunning. Run to the nearest bookstore. Dance your fingers over the keyboard as fast as lightning. Do what it takes, but GET THIS BOOK.
    • 4/5
      What can I say about The Memory of Love? I agree, it's a great book in it's discussion of war and the personal and societal aftermath. I loved the idea that a psychologist would think to go to Sierra Leone to help with PTSD. The scenes of the patients in the mental institution and even in the main hospital were chilling and hopeful. Chaining mental patients and drugging them into quietude, sending a paralyzed man home because there was no hope and no room for long term care then forgetting to talk to the family, wow. But beginning a book called The Memory of Love by talking about a stalker had me just about ready to chuck the book. I thought perhaps the author didn't realize the difference between obsessive need for possession and love, I was wrong. But the book comes down to a dynamic story of 3 men and a country with women, with few exceptions, being only victims and/or the object of desire, and/or the means of reproduction. I don't know why a woman would write such a book. Obviously she has had an affect on the world, and I'm willing to bet the women left behind in her native country do too. We can't fault a book for not being the book we wish it had been, so I gave it 4 stars, but can't help but wish Forna had done more with the women. Recommended to anyone wanting to know more about the effects of war.
    • 4/5
      A well-written novel that gives a broad view of the conflicts in Sierra Leone and the effect is has on individual lives -- of those who have spent their entire lives in country as well as those who come to "help". It offers interesting perspectives on personal responsibility.
    • 5/5
      And when he wakes from dreaming of her, is it not the same for him? The hollowness in his chest, the tense yearning, the loneliness he braces against every morning until he can immerse himself in work and forget. Not love. Something else, something with a power that endures. Not love, but a memory of love. – from The Memory of Love, page 185 -Sierra Leone is filled with survivors of a brutal civil war – people who are moving through the remains of their lives, traumatized by loss.Kai is a young surgeon working in the capital hospital and struggling with his own memories of a lost love and an incident he has buried deep within his heart. Elias Cole is an old man, dying in a hospital bed, and wanting to unburden himself of terrible choices he made, to re-write his own history and spin his story to his own advantage. Adrian is a British psychologist who has left his wife and daughter to come to Africa and help survivors to recover emotionally.Bound together by their own secrets, desires and one woman, these three men’s lives will become interwoven in ways none of them could ever have anticipated.Immersed in the novel are the stories of not just the characters, but of a whole country changed by war. Aminatta Forna explores the resilience of the human spirit, the fine line between truth and lies, betrayal, and the ethereal power of love in a novel which spans nearly two decades.People are blotting out what happened, fiddling with the truth, creating their own version of events to fill in the blanks. A version of the truth which puts them in a good light, that wipes out whatever they did or failed to do and makes certain none of them will be blamed. – from The Memory of Love, page 351 -Forna constructs her novel with three distinct narratives which move the reader back and forth from present time to when Sierra Leone was embroiled in civil war. The voice of Elias Cole is the echo behind the other stories. Here is a man who begins his narrative with his attraction to a married woman, but whose story changes as the reader begins to see the character through the eyes of others. Driven, competitive, and willing to do anything to advance his career, Elias is a man who represents the quiet support behind the scenes which allows evil to propagate.Adrian is a complex character – a man who is searching for something greater. He loves his child in England, but has grown distant from his wife. He is drawn to the people of Africa and wants to understand their torments. The last thing he expects to find, however, is love.How does a man whose task in life is to map the emotions, their origins and their end, how does such a man believe in love? – from The Memory of Love, page 362 -It was Kai, however, who I was most drawn to in this novel of loss. A young and gifted surgeon, a man whose job was to put back together the physically shattered lives of his patients, but whose own life was emotionally fragmented. My heart ached for Kai. I wanted to know what had happened to him…and Forna waits until the end of the novel to fully reveal his story. It is Kai’s character who brings the novel full circle, who links all the characters together.Close at hand a dog adds its voice to those of the others. Kai thinks of the day and the journey he now has before him. He does not lack the courage for it. No. Rather it was the courage to stay that had failed him. – from The Memory of Love, page 287 -The Memory of Love is a quiet novel which reveals the people of post-war Sierra Leone: a boy whose father was murdered, a man rebuilding his body and dreaming of marriage, a woman ready to reclaim her son born of a rape, a community strengthened by its collective memories and cultural ties. Forna’s writing is graceful, introspective, and beautifully rendered.The Memory of Love is a novel for those readers who enjoy literary fiction and works which examine African culture. It is a book about survival and the power of love to heal us.Highly Recommended.
    • 3/5
      This book has so much going for it. So much. So it's difficult to slap three stars on it and say “meh, it was okay.” Because it was more than okay, but it wasn't. And it was worth five stars, but it wasn't. What a confusing review.

      First off, let me say the second half of The Memory of Love is phenomenal. The story is strong, filled with suspense, tender moments, and those scenes that are hard to ever forget. The characters are interesting and their relationships leave the reader feeling both anxious and comforted. Well done. The pacing is great and almost everything seems to have purpose. The second half of the book is really, really, really exceptional. 4.5 stars.

      The first half is largely the opposite of the second. The characters meander through the story, every detail of their boring lives shared. As far as story or character development, very little happens. The details pour out page after minuscule-print page. It becomes a chore and that is not good news for any book, especially when it is the first two-hundred pages one must slog through. 3 stars.

      As I neared the end, I really began to love this novel. It was all coming together rather nicely. And then, it didn't pull through. Loose ends were left. Characters became irrelevant. There was no point to so much of the backstory. Essentially, this was a novel about Adrian and Kai and their relationship with one another and with Mamakay. That was the story. So why was so much time spent on Elias and Julius and Saffia? I realize there was somewhat of a “repetition of the cycle” motif, but it didn't fit together well enough to be necessary. And what was the whole thing with Agnes? Why was the reader asked to spend so much time trying to solve the mystery of Agnes if it wasn't relevant? It seems to me that either The Memory of Love needed to add considerable story to make it all fit together, or cut out all that was unnecessary. I vote for the latter.

      Aminatta Forna does so much right with this novel. The story is wonderful and the depiction of high-society Africa on the brink of modernization (yet so far from it) is incredibly refreshing. I wish this was a novel I could recommend to others, but in a world with so many other wonderful books it is not quite worth it in the end. My fingers are crossed that Forna will find the right balance the next time out. 3 stars.

      Okay, okay, 3.25, but in good conscience I cannot go any higher.

      3.49 stars.
    • 5/5
      It is a real pleasure to read a book where the language and story flow smoothly to create a soul-satisfying reading experience. Ms. Forna writes about a memorable place and time in her native country of Sierra Leone. It’s a perplexing time for Dr. Adrian Lockheart, a psychologist, when he arrives to help disturbed patients and finds his services superfluous. He is able to connect with the dying Professor Cole, who wants to unburden himself of his past, and “crazy” Agnes, haunted by spirits and compulsive wandering, but most of his patients wanted medicine rather than psychotherapy. His evolving friendship with Kai, a talented young African surgeon, and his infatuation with Mamakay, a captivating clarinet player, make up for the disappointment he had of making a big impact on the lives of people ravaged by war.The author focuses on these characters as she artfully tells the story of a country broken by a decade long civil war at the end of the 20th century. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is so common it is considered more of a way of life than an ailment. Forna shows us the thin line between healing or burying the pain. This is a country where everyone is a victim of terror and greed and the memories of love and atrocities are released slowly, allowing the reader time to reflect on the festering wounds below the surface. Have your tissues at hand while reading this book. It’s impossible to read it without making an emotional connection to the people of Sierra Leone.
    • 4/5
      A bit confusing, but I'm glad I read it.When I look back over this book and think about its content, I realise that it was quite a fascinating read, with a lot of details that we spent an excellent book group flushing out. However, while I was reading it I was really struggling to keep it flowing. It was a painfully slow read and the majority of my fellow book-groupers felt the same way. I found it very confusing, not least, the nationalities (native African or ex-pat British) of some of the characters and who was speaking when a new chapter started.Set in Sierra Leone, the narrative swaps - a bit irratically - between current time and 1969, when Elias Cole first sets eyes upon Saffia. He is instantly besotted and although she is married, starts to stalk her, even befriending her husband, his colleague, Julius.In current time, Adrian Lockheart, a volunteer psychologist, is listening to the elderly Elias recount his life, but why is he so determined to tell all? Is he trying to rewrite history so that he appears more favourably?The use of the psychologist, Adrian, was an excellent tool to recount many of the experiences of survivors of the 1991-2002 civil war, as he attempts to help them come to terms with their lives. Almost the whole population is suffering from some degree of post taumatic stress disorder after the atrocities.Adrian befriends a fellow hopital doctor, surgeon, Kai, probably the most likable character. Kai is dedicated to his country but has recently started to consider moving to the USA for a better life and to escape his memories.The denouement effectively links Elias, Adrian and Kai in a satisfying finale that joins the various strands of the novel.Although I am glad I read this book, I stand by my 3.5 star rating as I found it rather confusing, especially in the first half. I don't think I'd particularly recommend it and am quite surprised by some of the glowing reviews it has received.
    • 5/5
      Having already read this year’s Orange Prize winner, The Tiger’s Wife, earlier this year I have to ask myself, “What in the world were the judges thinking?” This stunning novel, that tells the heartbreaking story of the detritus of the Sierra Leone war years, came in what? Second or third? How is that possible? This novel is breathtaking and polished. That other novel is a flawed first attempt. This novel tells how the war in Sierra Leone left the residents bruised and hurting. That other novel dealt with a war too and its effect on the populace. But this novel tore your guts out and that other novel left me feeling like a bystander, with only a casual interest. Both books had two separate threads, years apart, that the author weaved back and forth, telling the story. But this novel was seamlessly constructed while that other novel had me wondering what was going on. What did the judges see, that passed me by?Adrian is a psychologist from the UK serving a one year placement in Sierra Leone, working with those people deeply affected by the war and suffering from PTSD and other emotional disorders. He works in a mental hospital and in a medical hospital. Elias Cole is a patient in the hospital, in the last throes of pulmonary disease. He is telling Adrian his story of the days when he was a young college lecturer and the first man walked on the moon. Kai is a young surgeon who is fighting the demons that have plagued him since the war years a decade ago. Adrian unwittingly finds the one woman who can draw the three of them together.This is the story of modern Africa, told with intelligence and heart. These people are real and this author slyly places the reader on the streets of the city and, through the multistrand effect, makes it all seem so heartbreakingly real. The effects of war on the people can never be overlooked, but how they deal with peace is another story.“So the man has lost all his young family without knowing it. They’ll be buried by the time the news reaches him. No telephones, no post, the far reaches of the country are virtually cut off. Somebody will have to carry the message to him. Every day Kai sees women on the wards lying next to their sick children. The women’s listlessness frustrates the foreign doctors, who try to urge them to take better care, to own responsibility for monitoring their child’s vital signs. The local nurses, though, show less surprise. And Kai recognizes the expression of the mothers. It is submission, submission in the face of the inevitable. People think war is the worst this country has ever seen: they have no idea what peace is like. The courage it takes to simply endure.” (Page 282)Yes, I’m afraid this is the book that should’ve won the Orange Prize. If only they would ask me to judge. Oh well. Very highly recommended.