When Hoopoes Go To Heaven
By Gaile Parkin
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
With gentle humour and a gift for detail, [Gaile Parkin] brings Rwanda to life, with its physical beauty, food and customs... [Baking Cakes in Kigali] is fluent and deeply moving - Independent
From the author of Baking Cakes in Kigali comes the irresistible story of Benedict Tungazara, a ten-year-old boy in Swaziland who loves beautiful birds, his mother's cakes, and making people happy...
Ten-year-old Benedict is feeling happy. His family's new home in Swaziland has the most beautiful garden in the whole entire world, teeming with insects, frogs and his favourite cinnamon-coloured birds. Here, crouched in the cool shade of the lucky-bean tree, it's easy to forget the loneliness that comes from his siblings playing without him, easy to stop himself fretting about how to fix his Mama's failing cake-baking business.
Of course, there are many things in Africa that cannot be put right by a boy who isn't yet big. But in Benedict's wonder-filled world, even the ugliest situation has a certain magic. Warm, funny and brimming with life, Where Hoopoes Go to Heaven paints a fresh and compelling picture of life in Swaziland that will capture your imagination and restore your faith in humanity.
Gaile Parkin
Gaile Parkin was born and raised in Zambia, and studied at universities in South Africa and England. She has lived in many different parts of Africa, including Rwanda, where Baking Cakes in Kigali is set. She is currently a freelance consultant in the fields of education, gender and HIV/AIDS.
Related to When Hoopoes Go To Heaven
Related ebooks
Knit, Purl, Slip Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Year in the Wild: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lion and the Thespian: The True Story of Prime Minister JG Strydom's Marriage to the Actress Marda Vanne Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Hell With Cronjé Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5SuperZero (school edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMore Ants! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fethafoot Chronicles: Nyarla and The Circle of Stones Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wilderness Between Us Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Leavenworth Case Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Into the Lion's Den: A True Story Set in 1820 Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReggie and Me Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBailey Boat Cat: Adventures of a Feline Afloat Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wild as it Gets: Wanderings of a Bemused Naturalist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrue North: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Woods Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Queen of the Free State: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow the ostrich lost his fire and other stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Land Obsession: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Drunken Forest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGo Away Birds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lost on the Map: A memoir of colonial illusions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKid Power Strikes Back Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShade of the Paraiso: Two Years in Paraguay, South America: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow Harry Riddles Made a Mega Amount of Money Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmelia O'Donohue Is So Not a Virgin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crossing the River Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalden of Bermondsey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Web of Lies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Broken Soup Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden (Original Classic Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Handmaid's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If We Were Villains: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How It Always Is: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious People: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen's Gambit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Thinking of Ending Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Lagos Wife: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for When Hoopoes Go To Heaven
15 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A feel-good read set in Swaziland,, 15 November 2015This review is from: When Hoopoes Go to Heaven (Hardcover)This book grew on me, and I would give it a 3.5.It's sweet, it's undemanding, but it has a charm all of its own. I hadn't read its prequel ("Baking Cakes in Kigali") but that didn't matter.This is the tale of family life in Swaziland seen from the point of view of sensitive 10 year old Benedict. He and his cousins are all being brought up by their grandparents, their own parents all being deceased or "late." Money is tight, requiring Baba to take on consultancy work which forces him to travel; and meaning Mama needs to get her cake business up and running in their temporary new home in Swaziland.Benedict observes - and sometimes misunderstands - the adult complexities of the world around him. But everything comes pretty good in the end.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book continues the story of Angel and her family in Baking Cakes in Kigali when they lived in Rwanda. Pius (Baba) is originally from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania who goes where his job takes him. His wife Angel earns income by baking cakes, a legal business in Rwanda but "under the table" in Swaziland. All of their children are actually grandchildren whose parents are "late". Benedict often refers to his "first mama" and "first baba". The story is presented from 10 year-old Benedict's viewpoint. He describes moving between African countries with all the attendant issues such as the differences in language and culture. However, he is delighted to have a collection of books in their rented house and a garden where he spends a lot of his free time. This appealing boy attempts to find a solution for every problem, including his Mama's fading cake-baking business.Although the writing is lighthearted the story behind it is complex and serious. Reading between the lines provides a more telling story of the changing circumstances many families are experiencing, brought about by the political and health upheavals of war and AIDS. In a postscript, the author claims Swaziland has the highest rate of AIDS in the world. Nevertheless, this book is a charmer that I can recommend highly.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Baking Cakes in Kigali introduced Tanzanian Angel Tungaraza and the cake baking business she established in Rwanda while her husband worked there as a Special Consultant at the University. In When Hoopoes Go to Heaven, Angel's husband, Pius, has a new consulting assignment in Swaziland. The Tungarazas and the five grandchildren they're raising live on a farm. The story is told mainly through the eyes of ten-year-old Benedict, the oldest of the three boys. As the oldest, he feels the burden of responsibility, especially when his Baba has to travel. Benedict is a sensitive boy with a love for animals and learning. When he's not outdoors watching birds or insects, he's indoors reading the encyclopedia. Benedict seems to have inherited his grandmother's observant and thoughtful nature. Although he doesn't understand the problems that weigh on the adults and older children around him, he's able to help them see things from a different perspective and often find a solution to their problems.I quickly fell under Benedict's spell. He's not precocious, and his innocence and sweetness are endearing. Writing from the perspective of a 10-year-old allows Parkin to indirectly comment on Swaziland's social problems, such as the status of women and the AIDS epidemic. (According to UNICEF, Swaziland has the world's highest HIV prevalence rate.) Both Baking Cakes in Kigali and When Hoopoes Go to Heaven show Africans and African nations not as the recipients of Western aid, but as agents in solving their social problems. I highly recommend both books.I'll leave you with a sample of Benedict's wisdom:Benedict wasn't sure that he liked the idea of a separate Heaven for dogs. Say you loved your dog and then you both got an accident and went to Heaven, but your dog had to go to a separate Heaven. Wouldn't being without your dog feel more like being in Hell? What if the Heaven for dogs was next door, and you had to speak to our dog through a fence and you could never hold him? Eh! God had made people and animals, all creatures great and small, and He had put them all together here on Earth. Why would He put them in separate Heavens afterwards? It didn't make sense.