Reviews of In the Shade of the Mulberry Tree
Brilliant and well written book!!!
Moving unwillingly to Zambia with two small children, setting up home and dealing with a very different culture, Catharine Withenay’s descriptions are so vivid that you can clearly picture the situations she finds herself in. This book is both funny and thought provoking. Highly recommended.
The descriptions are often very accurate and funny, speaking as someone who has lived in various places in Sub-Saharan Africa
It is as if the reader is actually there, peering over her shoulder at all the sights and marvels she is privileged to witness.
I devoured this book in the space of two days and wait with bated breath for the next instalment.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is, like me slightly nosy about what other people get up to, especially with such emotive circumstances of living in Africa and the challenges of poor medical care and poverty
Organising her husband, toddler and babe in arms, three suitcases, two rucksacks, a pram and a travel cot onto a plane ready for a new life in Zambia is complicated enough. Given Catharine’s fear of malaria and tropical diseases and the anxieties of moving beyond the reach of friends and family, she wonders how she was persuaded to move at all. Then, just as they approach the airport, it appears that they don’t have their passports.
In the Shade of the Mulberry Tree is a heartwarming and thought provoking tale about Catharine Withenay’s first year living abroad as an expatriate wife. She chronicles her family’s adventures as they settle into a new culture far from home. Nothing is as simple as it should be, from buying furniture to getting a haircut. As she copes with motherhood and the injustices of poverty and healthcare in Zambia she wonders: could she ever come to call this place home?