Kololo Hill

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The story follows the lives of a Ugandan Indian family, Motichand and his wife Jaya, their two sons, Pran and Vijay and Asha, Pran’s wife, and also their houseboy December an Acholi Ugandan, whose tribe was also being hunted by Idi Amin. Kololo Hill begins in 1972 when Ugandan’s president, Amin, declares the expulsion of all Ugandan Asians. Vijay, Pran's younger brother, has a bit more of a personality, but that's very inconsistent, swinging from being a family-oriented son to an independent man with explanation. Amin’s dictate, motivated by insecurity and greed, was particularly cruel in this regard, giving families only 90 days notice to leave the country, under the threat of rape, internment or, in many cases, murder. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.

December has been with the family since Motichand and Jaya arrived from India, and he means a lot to the family, particularly Jaya, and he too, is one of the minority’s who are in danger at the hands of Idi Amin’s regime. It feels like a very relatable story to me as a result of the author's excellent use of details to add depth to the layers within this multi-faceted tale such as the foods they eat, a blend of Indian and African which is something that I recognise within my own family. In 1972, a devastating decree was issued that all Ugandan Asians must leave the country in ninety days. A poignant, beautiful book that explores what it is to be forced to leave your country and rebuild your lives in another. I was really not satisfied with the way things ended, with Pran and Asha, with Vijay, I feel like I did not get a closure with these characters.

It really made me appreciate and value what it means to migrate to a place you may not necessarily have ever envisioned yourself living in. I first learned about this shocking period of history when reading another recent debut novel “We Are All Birds of Uganda” which describes the desperate flight from the country. We see the family arguing over whether to stay, whether to go to India or to Britain, and trying to find a way to keep just a little of their wealth to take with them. I would compare it to the likes The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, which coincidentally is about Indians as well, but I say this because reading Kololo Hill, was as much an experience as reading The God of Small Things, and I recommend this, it never hurts to learn more about history. It did leave me wanting more, I wanted to know what happened next for Pran and Asha, I guess that’s the sign of an absorbing excellent read.

Shah does a wonderful job of explaining the history and also her descriptions of Uganda were spot on, I could picture Entebbe in particular very clearly and her use of Swahili and Luganda dropped in were great. Her words will keep you hooked from the beginning, take you on a trip to the radiant land of Uganda and make you wonder what home really means to you. That was before the expulsion was announced, and Amin’s curfews began, accompanied by an increasingly alarming and violent military presence, mainly directed at those of Asian descent. I read a LOT of books set in the Indian sub-continent and about the immigrant experience - especially people from that region coming to terms with life in the UK or USA. distressing encounter in Kampala, to her struggling to plant new roots in the UK, Shah's characters are sympathetic as they are unpredictable.I had the privilege of attending the author event which the publisher very kindly invited me to, along with sending a copy of this book.

Thank you Book Break UK, Neema Shah, and Picador Books for this proof in exchange for an honest review.

It offers a poignant and thought-provoking reading experience, shedding light on the complexities of immigration, identity, and the resilience of the human spirit. this made me appreciate how the flashbacks in A Place For Us and Tell Me How To Be create such genuine images of the main characters' childhoods. Kololo Hill is an important read, it’s about a period of history that many people know little about. Because our family was taken out of a familiar environment (Uganda) and placed somewhere new, the way they coped with these changes and what these changes brought out in them became a huge driving force in the way that the story moved forward and I loved seeing how each of them reacted and adjusted. Throughout this ordeal, the reader is kept in the dark about a secret that threatens to upheave the tenuous new life they've created.

The novel explores with skill and nuance how, when a family is put under extreme stress and ultimately separated by circumstances outside their control, not only strengths in individuals and relationships are exposed, but fissures too. Still, this book gives an excellent account of the challenges facing Indian East African families leaving to go live in the West. As the pages turn, the growing menace is woven into the rich tapestry of family life in all its day-to- day intricacy. Before I begin this review, let me clear one thing- even with my rating, would I still recommend this book? There was the initial shock of the holding camps, and when our particular family eventually found somewhere to live, it was so vastly different from their beautiful hilltop home in Kampala.Civil strife is heavily depicted in the first half of the story - reminiscent of the movie The Last King of Scotland - and I've included trigger warnings above for this reason. The book also won the TLC (The Literary Consultancy) Pen Factor Live, shortlisted in the First Novel Prize and York Festival of Writing Best Opening Chapter and longlisted in the Exeter Novel Prize and Retreat West First Chapter competitions.