Sweetness in the Belly Book

I really need to revise my ratings, as this is one of my all time favourites, up there with "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks.

This is a work of fiction that reads like a colourful symphony...artfully composed and flowing with notes both wistful and poignant. Ms. Gibb transports the reader into the dusty streets of Africa, squatting in the dirt to dry chillies, or chewing qat to get high. Then readers struggle along with the characters in their daily grind as deposed refugees in Thatcher's England, amidst a population of Pommies growing increasingly resentful of their presence.

I loved this story, the way it is told from a truly unique perspective - that of a young girl orphaned when her hippy parents are killed, and left to be raised by another ex-pat Brit who has found roots in Islam and Morocco, and a revered guardian in the Great Abdal. Despite the noble efforts of these two men who truly oversee her protection and education as a child, Lily finds herself as a teen in Ethiopa, with few prospects and has to eke out a meagre existence as a teacher to poor children, while she tries to fit into the local community who continue to view her white face with suspicion and derision.

Political intrigue becomes political unrest, becomes manipulated famine to control the masses and those with any rumoured connection to the Emperor are sent to flee for their lives. Lily is one of the many who have to do just that, leaving the country she calls home, and her one and only love behind. He is the more western- minded doctor Aziz, who has had his own battles living in Harar with his black Somali appearance.

Her first love stays in her heart for many years, and is partly what drives her passion for matching refugee families with other relatives who trickle into England via various parts of Europe over the next decade.

"Sweetness in the Belly" is a journey that will make you believe you were there.