Sarah Challis

a delightful jaunt through Mali. Emily Kingsley and her cousin, Clemmie, are given the task of taking their Great Aunt Mary's ashes to Mali, to be scattered in a particular part of the dessert that's inhabited only by the nomadic tribes of the Tuareg. Why Mali of all places? When did Great Aunt Mary ever go to Africa? She'd never given anyone any hint that she'd been outside England in her life. Why does Emily think her companion, Ms Timmis, knows something but is holding back from them? show more Emily doesn't even want to go to Africa but Clemmie's enthusiasm is catching ... plus she just won't take no. So off they go, and their journey turns into one of discovery. Discovery of not just the secrets held by their Great Aunt Mary, but a discovery of themselves. show less

Jane was a victim of the emergence of the free love of the sixties - and finds that people are not quite so free and easy as they might like to think they are.
This is the interwoven tales of Jane and her new born daughter Flo, and Flo nearly forty years later, as she comes to terms with motherhood, and her own, modern-style relationship with Ha.
It's not difficult to guess what the 'big secret' is going to be, but the story and characters play out well.

A fairly easy read. The translation (I read it in German) was OK. I must have murmured 'The plot thickens' half a dozen times when reading. The conclusion - in both time sequences - was predicable, but was well worked out. I'm left wondering how well Sarah Challis knows the Sahara - and why. That might make a better story than this book.

Emily and her cousin Clemmie are charged with taking their great aunt Mary's ashes to be scattered in the Sahara Desert. Emily is reticent about the trip because of a recent heartache and because she is quite sensible and can't see the point. Clemmie, on the other hand, is more romantic and spontaneous, and talks Emily into making the trip. The majority of this book is taken up with the descriptions of their journey across Mali, meeting with the Tuareg people and the eventual reveal of the show more reason why their great aunt wanted to be scattered in a place they didn't even know she had visited.

I think the premise for this story is excellent, but unfortunately I did find the writing lacked depth, and because the story is told mainly in alternate first person chapters by Emily and Clemmie, it read a bit like a travel memoir and not like a work of fiction. I also didn't think it rang true that the girls would make such an epic trip for a relative that they weren't really all that close to.

I enjoyed the gradual unfolding of the mystery of why Mary wanted to end up back in Africa, although it did take a long time to get there. This was helped along by the chapters told by her long-time friend, Beryl Timmis.

I've still rated this book quite highly as I did enjoy the read overall, and thought the writer had done a terrific amount of research into the place and the people so that she could make it an authentic read. I did feel it was a little over-long, but ultimately enjoyable. show less