Book: Night of the Lions, Kuki Gallman

I had always thought that Kuki Gallman was Karen Blixen’s pseudo name. So, when I saw Night of the Lions at the Library’s book sale, I was very excited. When I read the intro and it said that Kuki was Italian, I thought…wait a minute, Karen was mostly certainly not Italian, things started falling into place. I know now, both are very much two different women, both European, who made Kenya their home. Incidentally, Isak Dinesen, is Karen Blixen’s pseudo name. (Isak / Kuki, who knows what I was thinking!) Maybe I confused I dreamed of Africa with Out of Africa...?

Seeing that I thought this was a Karen Blixen book, I obviously had no idea what to expect. Night of the Lion’s is Kuki Gallman’s second book. I didn’t mind reading it first, because it was made up of short stories. The last section of the book is in the format of a diary, recording their trek with camels through the desert.

Each story is incredibly well written, what a wonderful storyteller, but every story is so melancholic. The Night of the Lions story is probably my favourite story in the book.

3/5