NIGHT OF THE LIONS

The author of I Dreamed of Africa returns with “love stories about Kenya.” Spanning thirty years, these short pieces pay tribute to Gallmann’s adopted home--the vistas, the animals, the food, the people--never letting one forget that life is fragile and fraught with danger. Helen Bourne brings all these elements out, lingering over each word as if unwilling to let it go. Her mature voice matches Gallmann’s age while expressing the poignancy and tension of the title story or the nostalgia felt in a revisit to a seaside campsite. The vowels of her Italian (Gallmann’s mother tongue) and Swahili are positively liquid, and, though she reads with joy and passion, there’s always the sense that sadness lurks like a leopard just off scene. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 01]