So Many Africas:
Six Years in a Zambian Village
* Winner*
Autumn House Nonfiction Prize
Sarton Women’s Literary Award
Paperback. 175 pages. Autumn House Press
The Star Tribune says, "So Many Africas is a meditation on marriage and life, what two people know and don’t know when they begin a journey together.”
Collegeville Institute says, “Jill's honesty makes this book worth reading, and her evocative writing makes it worth recommending to everyone you know.”
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What People Are Saying
The Star Tribune
So Many Africas is a meditation on marriage and life, what two people know and don’t know when they begin a journey together.
Collegeville Institute, Bearings
“Jill's honesty makes this book worth reading, and her evocative writing makes it worth recommending to everyone you know.”
Brevity Liteary Journal Review
So Many Africas: Six Years in a Zambian Village is lyric and surprising—a gorgeous first book.
Barbara Stark-Nemon, author
“More than a beautifully written memoir of life in a remote corner of Zambia, Jill Kandel’s So Many Africas is a tone poem of a young American woman’s struggle to reconcile her new marriage and burgeoning family with the realities of Africa that are by turns shocking, inspiring, visceral, and haunting.”
Dr. Jessie Voigts / Jan 09, 2016: Wandering Educators
“This is a thoughtful book, written many years later, one that takes the entire scope of an expat experience in Africa and looks at it with the long view. When you’re an expat, things have immediate impact. When you return, you’re coping with re-entry shock. Only years later can you unpack your time living abroad with clarity and thoughtfulness. So Many Africas is an extremely thoughtful book, one that doesn’t flinch from the hard stuff, but digs in deeply and fully explores cross-cultural living. “
BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS BELOW
1 What did you connect with in So Many Africas?
2 How does the author use silence as a theme throughout the book? Have there been times when you have silenced yourself and your story?
3 What does the author say about hiding? Have there been things you've hidden in your life?
4 What are some of the other main ideas, themes, symbols you noticed in the book?
5 Why is Africa personified as a woman and referred to as She- what do you think the author feels about Africa?
6 Talk about the book's structure and how time moves back and forth between past and present.
7 Why does the author wait till the end of the book to include the chapter on letters to her mom and dad that were written many years earlier?
8 Is the ending satisfying?
