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Exilio (2012)

by Jakob Ejersbo(Favorite Author)

4.45 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

8499185231 (ISBN13: 9788499185231)

languge

English

genre

Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction

publisher

Roca Editorial

series

Afrika-trilogien

review 1: What a devastating book. I finished Exile a few days ago and have been mulling it over, unable to shake the word ‘devastating’. I didn’t enjoy it, and found most of the characters extremely unlikeable and almost un-relatable. But I’m kind of compelled to read the next in the trilogy, which on my understanding is set in the same time period, but from the perspective of different characters. Exile is translated from the Danish, and along with the two books that follow it, was published posthumously after Jakob Ejersbo’s death in 2008.I went to Tanzania in 2008 and while Exile is set a good twenty years before that, there were elements of it that I recognised, beyond place names and geographic markers. The tree-lined avenues of embassies, UN buildings and expatriate... more mansions with their shiny new SUVs and beefed up security systems, spitting distance from poverty. The supermarkets patronised by white foreigners, and seemingly miles away from the dusty roads and local markets just around the corner.Exile is set in the 1980s in Tanzania, in and around a school for privileged expatriates and the offspring of warlords and leaders of neighbouring countries. The protagonist, Samantha, moved to Tanzania from England at the age of 3 and has grown up with her older sister in the tourist lodge that her parents own and run. Her father is involved in various nefarious activities that are unnamed for the bulk of the book, while her mother spends her days running the lodge and drinking. The other students at the school have similar stories – their parents are diplomats, mercenaries, doctors, and political leaders. Samantha straddles two worlds, and lives with the threat of having to move ‘back’ to England, which is little more than a foreign country to her. At the start of the book, her sister Alison moves to England, only to return soon after and take over running the lodge. Her father alternates between violence and abuse, and what passes for affection and worry, but is a particularly unsavoury figure. Alison finds herself an expat husband which enables her to stay in Tanzania, regardless of what happens to her parents and sister, but Samantha’s residency is dependent on her father’s, which becomes uncertain. These people aren’t African, but they’re not English, either. They’ve lived their lives in this place where they don’t belong, without a real home to go back to. Samantha speaks Swahili and can interact with everybody like a local, but is never going to be Tanzanian. And having grown up in this situation, is never going to be able to go to England and be English. She’s constantly getting into trouble at school, being cautioned, disciplined, suspended. But with no real prospects or desires for what comes next, it’s of little consequence. There is no place for these people. They have no direction, no clear path out or away, or at all. They can go back to their parents’ home countries that some of them have never visited before, to live with relatives they’ve never met, or they can stay in Tanzania and float around. They smoke, drink, fuck and meander to pass the time until.. well, whatever. They’re spoilt, selfish, privileged, sad and at the same time pathetic people – it’s hard to know what to feel about them. They’re not likeable. They’re not particularly recognisable either, but neither is the situation in which they live, to most of us. They’re poor little rich kids, really. In a fish bowl.There are cultural clashes between and among the students – and between the students and the ‘locals’. It’s a violent and aggressive world, and an aggressive book. It spans from 1983 to 1986 and is somehow sludgy and slow moving. I wanted the best for Samantha. I felt for her, and the horrific ordeals that she suffers at various points in the book. Her school mates are brutal, as is she. Her world is a harsh one, but it’s hard to know how to feel, knowing that the world is even less forgiving for the rest of the Tanzanian population who don’t live such a privileged, imported champagne and caviar life. It’s difficult to know how to react to these characters, who are so privileged, but are at the same time so lost and isolated. The local people and communities are part of their landscape, props rather than living, breathing individuals who are hamstrung by their own lives and situations. Without giving too much away, the ending of this book left me winded. I wasn’t ever compelled to pick it up and was thankful for it extremely short chapter-like parts, and almost left it unfinished when I picked up another book. But I did go back and finish it, and it rocked me. I do now intend to read the second of the trilogy, but after a break – they’re heavy, these ones.
review 2: I started reading this not knowing what to expect but I wasn't expecting to love the book. But I loved it (mostly).To explain the "mostly" part: I hated the ending. Loathed it. I think it was awful, rushed, didn't fit in with the rest of the book and was one of those terrible endings that leave you with a, "Wait, that's it?" type of feeling - like you've read this whole book, read the character go through all of these things and in the end, there's really no closure or sense that anything was resolved.And that part I hated? It was seriously like five pages max, right at the very end - I loved the rest (well, there was one scene with cruelty to a cat that I hated too but in a different way to the ending - the end felt like a writing fail, the cat thing was just that I am strongly against animal cruelty), so for the rest of my review when I'm being positive, I'm talking about everything but the ending because if I judge it as a whole then my review will just get too negative because of how much I hated the end.The main character is a teenager, the story is about her life from about aged 15 until she's 18, but the content of the book is very adult (with her showing her age and immaturity quite a lot), it's unsugarcoated and uncensored (which I loved). I didn't always like Samantha, I actually kind of hated her sometimes, but she never bored me and I was hooked on the story from the start.If you like books with, well, a typical plot that has a set beginning and middle and end then this book maybe won't be for you - it didn't feel like reading a book like that, it felt more like one of those stories that is like, "Okay, here is the character and this is their life when they were aged X to Y" showing highlights from their life and it had a very real and raw feel to it because of that.The writing...in the beginning, it took some getting used to and I'm not sure why. I wasn't sure if I loved the writing or hated it but once I was into the story, I couldn't put it down and it's the kind of book that you remember and the way it's written is one of the things that you remember, it's kind of distinctive. But it's weird - I didn't exactly empathize with Samantha or the other characters, there was always a distance between me and them and I was caught up in their story but not the emotions...the way it's written, it's so in-the-moment of Samantha's thoughts that we never really get to properly know her or the other characters or figure them out (it's difficult to explain)...I don't mean that as a negative, it's just something about the book that just - is. And it was one of the things that made the writing distinctive.I can't really pin point why I loved the book (my attempts above kind of failed), I just know that I was hooked from start to finish. Maybe it was how original it felt or the culture thing - I've never read another book set there or like this one (the culture has the same kind of fascination factor that books like A Thousand Splendid Suns and Anna and the French Kiss have).In the end, my overall verdict was that I loved the book (although I really, really wish the ending was different - it felt like a different story; like a real and raw and grounded story turned into something that would've fit in more with a supernatural crime novel).I would not have wanted to read the book based on the summary and the cover would not have caught my attention at all, it really isn't a book I would've read on my own so I'm really glad I was sent it to review because I'm happy I read it, it was awesome and you should check it out.And I think that's enough rambling for one review. This one really is difficult to review. less

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