Of course the ‘Indians’ used by the British to shore up their colonies in Africa (and Fiji) were in a terrible position not of their own making, but I’m not sure I blame the Africans for wanting to take their countries back. I thought this was a brilliant book about friendship and how love can overcome barriers of culture and religion through friendship and marriage. The love story between Sameer and Maryam was not only standard fare, but the dialogue between the two of them was at best clunky, and at times stilted. Kingfishers are medium-sized birds with large heads, long, pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails. The Indian diaspora is really fascinating, especially when it involves “exotic to me” locations (for me, this includes corporate London!

We Are All Birds of Uganda - Hafsa Zayyan - Google Books We Are All Birds of Uganda - Hafsa Zayyan - Google Books

These birds are adapted to an aquatic existence with webbed feet, flattened bills, and feathers that are excellent at shedding water due to an oily coating. They are identifiable by their huge feet and claws which enable them to walk on floating vegetation in the shallow lakes that are their preferred habitat. These people lost everything that they’d toiled to achieve, but in reality, it could be said that they were lucky to escape with their lives, as dictator Idi Amin butchered ethnic minorities in their thousands during his murderous spree. The conflict between the African and Asian Ugandans is mirrored by the racism Sameer experiences in Britain.

woven together with gentle urgency; sensitive and with a rare perspective on how our mixed race backgrounds can help form feelings of both internal power and conflict.

List of birds of Uganda - Wikipedia List of birds of Uganda - Wikipedia

I was concerned towards the end that Zayyan had tied up all the loose ends and was going for a rather conventional ending. African warblers are small to medium-sized insectivores which are found in a wide variety of habitats south of the Sahara.

These letters are mixed into the main narrative of the book which tells us the modern day story of Sameer.

We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan | Waterstones We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan | Waterstones

He’s something of a golden boy at the firm, so well regarded that his employers chose him for the launch team of their new Singapore office. Most species are found in Africa but others occur in southern Europe, Madagascar, Australia, and New Guinea. Skipping back to 1945, we follow another Asian Ugandan voice via Hasan’s heartfelt letters to his deceased first wife. His future, and that of his children, becomes increasingly precarious as the regime led by Amin make it clear people from the Indian sub continent are no longer welcome in Uganda.

Sameer is a nice bloke with some serious life decisions to make, but is, as protagonists go, a tad dull. They were both young students in the country - alone, without their parents when Amin announced the expulsion. The LoveReading LitFest invited Hafsa Zayyan to the festival to talk about We Are All Birds of Uganda. Some species have feet with two toes pointing forward and two backward, while several species have only three toes. Having been curiously incurious about his past, Sameer finally discovers his sense of identity and purpose when he engages with his own personal history, a history that is drip-fed to the reader in a series of short, interlaced chapters, which take the form of letters written by his grandfather to his deceased first wife.

We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan review – a

In spite of having been recognized as one of the most promising lawyers of his practice and that he will be part of the team to set up a new office in Singapore, Chris treats him like poorly. The white-eyes are small and mostly undistinguished, their plumage above being generally some dull colour like greenish-olive, but some species have a white or bright yellow throat, breast, or lower parts, and several have buff flanks. Remarkable in its exploration of identity, family bonds, racism, colourism and the phenomenon of twice migration through characters who’ve moved from South Asia, to East Africa, to Europe, I read Sameer’s story in one sitting, utterly engrossed by his awakening from a state of unrest to finding new purpose as he redefines the nature of success. It was after I read Matilda that I aspired to do like her and get through every book in the children’s section of my local library – and then some more!The storyline is both contemporary and historical, we follow a split-narrative approach, following Sameer in the modern day, a hot-shot lawyer living in London, eager to escape his family in Leicester, along with Hasan, in 1960s Uganda, writing to his deceased first wife, recounting the political situation in Uganda as Idi Amin takes control of the country. And one of the real heroes of the book is Sameer’s other childhood and present day friend – Jeremiah, a black Christian from Leicester, increasingly successful as a music producer and a faithful friend and confidant to both Sameer and Rahool. Corvids are above average in size among the Passeriformes, and some of the larger species show high levels of intelligence. A month passed and I was shortlisted, and I was asked by Merky to submit the rest of my manuscript within seven days – and I had absolutely nothing. For those who are fans of multi-generational historical fiction I think this one will be a firm winner!