By all accounts, and indeed I agree with them, these books (Alexander McCall Smith surpasses even his Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld series) are excellent in style, writing, and literary worth. Yet what strikes me even more as I read them is how wonderfully he captures the true Africa.
Have you ever been to Africa? I went only when I was three years old, yet the memory of it is still with me. Even that small visit at a young age has stayed with me, and enabled me to see how wonderfully Smith has captured Africa in his mystery series.
They are just small things, idiosyncrasies, ways of thinking, details, yet they combine to paint a picture of Africa that takes me there as though I were sitting in the market again, eating sugarcane and listening to people around me chatter in Swahili. Smith should be congratulated not only for his wonderful writing and fascinating characterization, but his ability to take you into a world that you cannot even dream of.
As he says at the end of his books...
Africa
Africa Africa
Africa Africa Africa
Africa Africa
Africa
... my country, my place, my home.