Frieda also knows that Rachel has a deep yearning to return to Africa and especially to continue the work of her parents. Knowing that Grandfather Pritchard, being old fashioned, will not see to Rachel's education, Frieda arranges for Rachel to attend a boarding school near Stagsway, Gradfather's estate. Rachel has the good fortune to meet Mr Grumbloch's sister, Frieda, a free spirit protofeminist who holds salons in her flat which Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro and Virginia Woolf attend. But this is not the end of Rachel's story. When the influenza epidemic reaches Tumaini, the mission hospital they run, Dr and Mrs Sheridan minister to the sick but ultimately succumb to the illness, dying within a day of each other and leaving Rachel and orphan with no living relatives, only Kanoro, a Kikuyu, who watched over Rachel when she was small.īut, her story ends well and Grandfather Pritchard and his lawyer, Mr Grumbloch come to her rescue and put an end to the mendacity for good. Her parents are strict but loving and instill her with a deep sense of responsibility and connectedness, perhaps because they were both orphans raised in England and have the mission to thank for their educations and jobs.
Her descriptions of her home, the land and the native community she is part of illuminate her love of Africa and its people. At the start of the novel Rachel is living in Kenya with her missionary parents, a doctor and teacher, who are ministering to the Kikuyu and Masai tribes. The story begins in 1919 and is is told in the first person by the sensitive and thoughtful thirteen year old, Rachel Sheridan. With this book, Whelan combines two of my favorite plot elements: an orphaned child and a historical setting. Setting her stories all over the world, Whelan is a master at crafting a compelling story of a young woman's will to control her own fate and Listening for Lions is no exception. When her new life as a wife, far from her family turns out to be worse than she could have imagined she takes her future into her own hands.
Urn:isbn:0061781150 Republisher_date 20120429171455 Republisher_operator Scandate 20120429032649 Scanner Whelan, winner of the National Book Award in 2000 for Homeless Bird, her story of Koly, an Indian girl who faces an arranged marriage at age thirteen. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 15:05:39 Boxid IA178001 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City New York DonorĪllen_countydonation Edition 1st ed.
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