“The Book of Secrets”
by M. G. Vassanji
Published: October 1997
ISBN: 0771087217

(Updated: November 29, 2005.)

From the Publisher…

The Book of Secrets is a spellbinding novel of generations and the sweep of history which begins in 1988 in Dar es Salaam when the 1913 diary of a British colonial officer is found in a shopkeeper’s back room. The diary enflames the curiosity of a retired schoolteacher, Pius Fernandes, whose obsession with the stories it contains gradually connects the past with the present. Inhabiting the story is a memorable cast of characters, part of an Asian community in East Africa, whose lives and fates we follow over the course of seven decades. Rich in detail and description, M. G. Vassanji’s award-winning novel magnificently conjures setting and the realm of eras past as it explores the state of living in exile from one’s home and from oneself.

Well… what to write about this book? I found it long and complicated and ultimately simple.

The sense of history was less clear and present than in other books I have read and I can’t really claim that I found a great exploration of living in exile from either one’s home or from oneself. Yet… I can’t bring myself to give this book less than a three out of five hearts.

I did look forward to getting back to it and I did look forward to finishing it. And, I was surprised to find that which I ultimately came away with from having read it.

Would I recommend it? I wouldn’t necessarily encourage anyone to read it but neither would I discourage them from reading it.