Green City in the Sun (Paperback)

by Barbara Wood (Author)
Key Phrases: native hospital, principal medical officer, eucalyptus glade, Green City, Barbara Wood, Mau Mau (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Wood's skill as a writer of well-crafted, impressively researched romances is growing. With this engrossing saga, set in Kenya from the early 1900s to the present day, she should achieve a breakthrough to readers who look for literary competence as well as a good story. Here she traces the intertwined destinies of two families over three generations. Lord Valentine Treverton is representative of the upper-class Britishers who founded white settlements in Kenya: hardworking, determined to wrest a coffee crop from East Africa's fertile soil, he is also arrogantly ignorant of the ancient traditions of the natives who call their home Kikuyuland. When Treverton cuts down a sacred fig tree on his new plantation, medicine woman Mama Wachera puts a curse (thahu) on the Treverton family until "the land is returned to the children of Mumbi." Her descendants are destined to play a vital role in the apparent success of that curse. Representing the best that white settlers brought to East Africa is Valentine's sister, Dr. Grace Treverton, who establishes a mission clinic that strives to bring modern medical care to the native population. "Daktari" Grace is another link in the chain of pioneering female physicians who feature in most of Wood's (Domina, Vital Signs) novels. Wood nicely recreates time and place, interweaving the main events in Kenya's history with domestic details and social nuances to enrich a sometimes melodramatic tale of pride, passion and revenge. The customs and taboos of the Kikuyu are appropriately integrated into the narrative, as is the inevitable conflict of cultures, sweeping to a maelstrom of violence during the Mau Mau terrorist uprising of the 1950s. 100,000 first printing; $125,000 ad/promo; paperback rights to Fawcett; Literary Guild dual main selection.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
“Tremendous … a reader-pleaser in every way … The people, places, and times that [Wood] evokes so movingly, so vividly, will haunt me long after I’ve put the book aside … Such a moving ending—and exactly right.”

—Phyllis Whitney, New York Times best-selling author

Acclaimed novelist Barbara Wood delivers a magnificent saga of two proud and powerful families—one British, one African—and their battle over Kenya’s destiny in the twentieth century.

In 1917, Dr. Grace Treverton arrives in Kenya, determined to bring modern medicine to the African natives. Her brother, Sir Valentine Treverton, has his own dream for the British protectorate: to establish an agricultural empire to rival any in England.

The aspirations of the wealthy Trevertons collide with those of the Mathenge tribe, an African family that has lived on the land for years. Grace soon finds a deadly rival in Mama Wachera, an African medicine woman who fights to maintain native traditions against the encroaching whites. After Wachera curses the Trevertons, a series of tragedies threatens to destroy what the once-great family fought to create. But the fates of future generations of these two remarkable families are inextricably bound.

A bold and brilliant achievement, Green City in the Sun brims with all the drama, violence, and fierce beauty of the Kenyan landscape.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 613 pages
• Publisher: Authors Choice Press (June 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595433391
• ISBN-13: 978-0595433391
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #135,597 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Black and White and Green, April 6, 2002

By	S. Brand "sandra807" (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Green City in the Sun (Paperback)

Every book I have read by Barbara Wood is an amazing blend of history, romance, complex relationships, and situations fraught with difficulties and problems to solve. Her characters bind you to them as you share their joys and hardships.

The fascinating setting in "Green City" is the early 1900s in Kenya, and involves the conflict between the rich British Treverton family who wants to establish a profitable plantation, and the neighboring tribal medicine woman who curses them for invading her people's land. Tragedies befall the Trevertons, and they struggle through the uprising of the native Kenyans as they defy the British. Complicating things is the romance between the medicine woman's black son and a young white Treverton woman.

Meanwhile, we follow the heroine, Doctor Grace Treverton, who, separating herself from the aspirations for wealth of the rest of her family, dedicates her life to serving the tribes by providing them with medical care and schooling. Yet even this big-hearted and wise woman is not immune to danger from the revolting tribes or from romantic turmoil involving a married man.

Full of romance, danger, and political and family intrigue, this 700-page book never lost my attention for a minute!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is an outstanding work of literature., December 1, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Arlington VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Green City in the Sun (Paperback)

I found this book at a book fair in Washington D.C. I must admit that the only reason I bought it was because I needed 10 books in order to have one free. I do not regret my desicion. "Green City In The Sun" is an epic story of the birth of a nation: Kenya. With very likable characters, the story evolves around the Trevetons, a family divided by their ambitions. Only one obstacle will make their dreams dificult to fulfill: Mama Wachera who place a curse on the British family and becomes the spiritual leader of her people, the Kikuyu. Like in a Greek tragedy,all the members of the Treverton family die one by one, except Dr. Grace Treverton who dies of old age, and Debora who comes back to Kenya by Mama Wachera request to her deathbed. Beautiful story, intense plot and very charismatic characters makes this novel a masterpiece of fiction literature.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A synopsis of all the great things there are in life!, April 16, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Green City in the Sun (Paperback)

"Green City in the Sun" is not a book about Africa. It is not about successful women in a male dominated environment. And it is not about culture and race. "Green City in the Sun" combines all these elements skillfullfy, strong and persuasive but tender and insightful. It makes you want to pack a bag and move to Kenya