Kololo Hill

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In a recent interview, Hilary Mantel astutely summarised our enduring fascination with historical fiction when she declared “history is a process, not a locked box. distressing encounter in Kampala, to her struggling to plant new roots in the UK, Shah's characters are sympathetic as they are unpredictable. there are definitely books like Guapa and Exit West that cleverly use an unnamed country as the setting, but Kololo Hill definitely isn't one of them. i'm guessing East African South Asians will like Kololo Hill more than me -probably because there is such little representation of their history and culture in books. the family moves from Kampala to London and the only differences Jaya notices are the weather and the supermarkets.

Is it the place that we live, the four walls the enclose us, the country in which we reside, a place that we hold dear in our hearts? Shah really brings to life the refugee experience, the mixed emotions that comes with being forced to leave behind everything you’ve ever known. I think the strength of this novel is that you meet and stay with many of the characters and get to know them inside and out. This is a book with a huge amount of heart; I was entirely captured by the stories of Asha, Jaya and Vijay.

Asha and Pran are newly weds and just as they begin their journey along with Pran’s family, they are faced with expulsion that may possibly separate them and with every secret, every shock that comes, things get more complex and serious once they are faced with the fact that they cannot escape this expulsion and they must leave the house forever. Its a strange co-incidence that the exodus of Ugandan Asians in 1972 has been so little written about and then along come two books on the subject. Set in Uganda in 1972, an extraordinarily moving debut that tells the story of one family’s escape, when Amin forces them to leave: a story of loss and separation, but also ultimately of hope. The identity crisis that comes as a part of being a refugee, the heartache that arises from the loss of loved ones, the struggle to safeguard present relationships while trying to figure out “why me?

The themes of loss, survival, and the enduring power of family are woven throughout the narrative, creating a compelling and moving story. Told from various viewpoints, Neema Shah’s debut novel, gives great insight into what it was like for those immigrants starting a new life in England. The story masterfully shifts between the past in Uganda and the family’s new life in England, highlighting the stark differences between their once comfortable existence and the hardships they face as refugees.Before reading this book, I did not know anything about Idi Amin, about Asians working in Uganda and Kenya for the rail works and about the expulsion that took place. neemashahauthor beautifully captures the lives of immigrants, their emotions while leaving everything behind and adapting to a new culture and country.

The period specificities, music, food and the intermixing of cultures, Indian and Ugandan was very well done.This last threat is where the novel begins, when Asha, a new bride, unwittingly stumbles across the terrifying evidence of just how far Amin’s forces will go to enforce their power in Uganda. Motichand and Jaya arrived in Uganda from India many years ago, and the beautiful green hilltops of Kololo Hill are very much their home now, they’ve made a decent life for themselves and have been very happy.