Joki

Set in Kenya and UK between 1963-2004, this novel tells the deeply moving story of Joki, an abandoned orphan, and her loving foster-father, Mr. Tembo. After receiving an engineering degree and working in England, Tembo returns to Kenya to head a multinational engineering company. A combination of happenstance, government corruption and hard work propels him into profound wealth that drives his wife and clan to fight him and each other. As the elephantine feuding over real estate, horticulture export-business, family allegiance and religion escalates, Joki is gravely trampled. Hope and despair mix with laughter and tears as unlikely sources come to Joki's aid, offering her hidden wisdom with which to protect herself, and possibly fulfill her father's deepest longing. With several unexpected twists and turns, this profound yet humorously narrated story demonstrates the restorative power of love and faith in the face of greed and cruelty. --------------- With compassionate realism born from personal experience, sociologist Njeri Mbugua takes us inside an African society rarely discussed-the modern affluent Africa where children are chauffeured to exclusive private schools, and uniformed watchmen with fierce dogs protect mansion-dwellers from their countrymen ravaged by AIDS, famine and poverty. Each year an abandoned orphan like Joki is thrust into this elite bubble, occasionally with startling repercussions.