Out of Africa
Why this book?
If you only know the movie, you’ve missed the majesty of Isak Dinesen’s rhapsodic love song to the noble creatures and intricate peoples of the African veldts. Despite its colonial overtones, written in 1937, this is a passionate and compassionate portrait of a place like no other, a portrait of the Earth before she received her name. Check out the story of Kamante and Lulu, or “the Giraffes Go To Hamburg”; they’ll break your heart. “If I know a song of Africa, does Africa know a song of me?” Dinesen writes. I read this book when I was very young and dreamed of going. Because of it, I have travelled there. Part of me has never come back.