Katherine Scholes
Reviewed by Helen
What a wonderful story this one is, set in Tanzania in 1970 on an archaeologist dig, we have a journey of discovery with Essie Lawrence, Essie married into the famous archaeologist family five years ago, she lives with her husband Ian and his mother Julia and great many African workers from different tribes, life is slow with funding running out, when a chance meeting with the Hadza tribe will change Essie’s life forever.
The Magadi research camp is very close to a volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai the Lawrence family work daily searching for past life hoping to make a big discovery, they are expecting visitors and the hope of more funding when Essie is out searching she runs into a Hadza tribe and she is asked to take on the care of a baby for a few months, children are not something that Essie has ever wanted but for some reason she takes this baby girl back to camp knowing that is going to cause a lot of upheaval in everyone’s life, maybe especially for her mother in law Julia and over the course of a few months Essie is discovering things from her past as she grows to love the baby girl Mara.
MS Scholes has described this area beautifully, the salt lakes that are at the base of the volcano the flamingoes that come to bread each year and she delves into the people that are part of the land as well as the Lawrence family and their past, the cultural beliefs of these people and how they somehow can blend with the Europeans that are living here looking for the past. I loved seeing Essie learn so much about the Hadza from her assistant Simon and loved seeing her falling for the beautiful baby the bond that grew between them opened so much in Essie, that had her delving further into her past.
I really loved this story it is heart wrenching and beautiful at the same time, discoveries from the past can lead to personal discoveries, Essie was such a strong woman who had her heart torn, and she had such feelings for the tribes and their beliefs and stood her ground for what she thought was right, this is a story that I would highly recommend, this is my first book by MS Scholes but it won’t be the last, a fabulous story about love and the past and future and the descriptions took me to Tanzania thank you.
5 stars
Penguin Random House 31st March 2020
