BOOK REVIEW: Boomerang by Temba Magorimbo

Boomerang by Temba Magorimbo
Genres: Fiction

Pages: 446, Kindle Edition
Published: 2016 
Cover Rating: 3/5

Boomerang by Temba Magorimbo is based in Africa and is one those few novels that I have read that allows me to explore the enormous continent. The novel is a unique in many ways with a good start that allows the reader like myself to indulge in it from page one.

With massive amount of characters I am going to share the official blurb of the book here:

Kangira loves the woods. With a tree stuck between his knees, his piercing short handle axe like tool working, his files and other equipment he creates stunning carvings that even the white ruling class come down to his rural home to see. There is a clash when his uncles the chief passes away. According to their customs and culture, Kangira is the next in line but someone else side steps him and claims the crown. Disappointed, he moves homes down about a hundred kilometres away to start his own clan. Years later he is ailing. Who fathered Richmond adopted by Kangira’s son and a young man who is at home in carpentry and wood carving as well? Why is there such a coincidence?

There is a young lady called Judith in love with Wallace. But why does a man dump a young and lovely wife hundreds of kilometres away in a rural enclave where the facilities are just basic for two years almost. She loses her pregnancy. Years later who is responsible when she falls pregnant in the absence of Wallace? Judith’s daughter is called Ndanatsiwa. She grows to cause a family circus and furore. Later on she is into her early thirties and unmarried when she meets Richmond. She worries about Richmond’s past.
One of Kangira’s blood brothers has a son who likes to remind Richmond that he is out of contention in the family will. Ndanatsiwa has a relative or a friend who is spilling out all the beans each time she has a serious date who starts considering marriage. She consoles her misfortunes in her friend Lydia Shashe who is a ravishingly beautiful nursing sister with a degree. Ndanatsiwa is a legal practitioner. Ndanatsiwa falls out with Richmond.

There is a party, someone has had too much to drink and they berate Richmond on his bachelor status at his age and that he is not of the Kangira family, he was adopted. The cats fly out of the bag and the skeletons out of the closets. Another drunkard pin points the paternal and maternal side of Richmond. What a firework?

Now that Richmond knows his past and Ndanatsiwa stumbles on her paternity, will it change their future?

The book is written using third-person’s narrative voice. The plot is starts at good terms with the reader as the whole concept of reading about tribes in Africa and getting glimpses from a whole new culture in Temba Magorimbo words, I was in awe of it. Being from a country that flattered by the diversity, I could relate and understand the cultural clashes and similarities of tribes discussed in this book. Even though fictitious, the plot is realistic and will boost a reader’s imagination.

However, the plot is driven by core part of this novel, the characters as they play an important role. The overall characterisation in the book is good but as the plot advances in its own timeline, it could have been more descriptive about the nature of the characters. A distinctive history at the start or the end of novel about the clan Kangira belongs and branches out, could have been more helpful to a reader like me who is not familiar with exact cultures.

The writing style is good and really brings out author’s effort in front of the reader to appreciate it. It impressive as it grabbed my attention from the starting chapters and one of the only thing that kept me going through this novel. However, due to the length of the book and being a character driven plot, few times it did seem that the plot is being either too slow or being dragged. With some re-editing this can improve.

If you are looking for something new to read, altogether want to explore African culture, this is the book you want to try.

3 out of 5!