Harry Harambee’s Kenyan Sundowner: A Novel
An emotional story of expat intrigue in Africa, reminiscent of The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene and The Constant Gardener by John le Carré.
Book Publicists Irwin Award, Best Indies Notable 100, NABE Pinnacle Award - Best in Literary Fiction, FAPA President's Book Awards - Bronze in Adult Fiction.
A lonely widower from Los Angeles buys a tour package to East Africa on the promise of hookups and parties. What he finds instead are new reasons to live.
Aldo Barbieri, a slick Italian tour operator, convinces Harry to join a group of adventuresome “voluntourists.” In a resort town on the Indian Ocean, Harry doesn’t find the promised excitement with local ladies. But in the supermarket he meets Esther Mwemba, a demure widow who works as a bookkeeper. The attraction is strong and mutual, but Harry gets worried when he finds out that Esther and Aldo have a history. They introduce him to Victor Skebelsky, rumored to be the meanest man in town. Skebelsky has a plan to convert his grand colonial home and residential compound into a rehab center – as a tax dodge. The scheme calls for Harry to head up the charity. He could live like a wealthy diplomat and it won’t cost him a shilling!
Harry has to come to terms with questions at the heart of his character: Is corruption a fact of life everywhere? Is all love transactional?
From the Author
After repeated safari trips to East Africa, my wife and I took up residence in Kenya for two years. Our purpose was to support her work in wildlife conservation and child welfare. As Harry does, we lived most of that time on the South Coast, as well as several months in Nairobi. As for my daily life, I chatted up new friends, continued to write several books, and started this one. I wrote about what I saw and learned. I love Kenya, and I hold friends and colleagues there dear. Although we’d considered staying indefinitely, we returned to the U.S. because things got “interesting.” This was pre-pandemic. But events soon became so much more interesting, not only in domestic politics but also because of the global crisis. Harry’s story has him staying there and deciding to take action largely because of the pandemic.
I now view my life and world events with a more Kenyan mindset – pragmatic, amused, cautious. Among other lessons learned, I appreciate that gossip is news. Read the papers and the posts, certainly. But if you want to know what’s really going on – what people are worried about – take a ride a taxi or tuk-tuk and open your ears!
