The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: mealie sacks, mission garage, cattle gate, Mavala Shikongo, Miss Tuyeni, Head Teacher (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Orner's poetic, episodic examination of the varieties of life at an isolated Catholic primary school deep in the veld of Namibia coheres around the title character, a beautiful guerrilla fighter turned kindergarten teacher. Set in the early 1990s, soon after Namibia won independence from South Africa, this impressive debut novel (after Esther Stories) is mostly narrated by Larry Kaplanski, a young volunteer who leaves Cincinnati, Ohio, to teach English and history at Farm Goas. Orner captures Goas's glacial rhythms, the extraordinary contrast between the desert's night and day, and the community's daily privations, including—for the single male teachers—a lust arising from boredom and loneliness. Mavala Shikongo, the principal's sister-in-law and the object of her colleagues' desires, reluctantly settles at Goas with her illegitimate baby boy, Tomo. Orner punctuates Larry's observations with brief interludes told from the points of view of other inhabitants of the school, and with haunting, cinematic imagery—boys do pull-ups on a huge cross; Mavala and Larry, who become friends and intimates, hold their afternoon trysts on the graves of Boer settlers. These telling snapshots stand in for the larger sociopolitical, cultural and religious issues facing a country emerging from a century of colonization. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

Talk about stories never told. Larry Kaplanski from Cincinnati is a volunteer teacher in a small, rough all-boys Catholic school in the Namibian desert in 1991, just after independence. He shares a shack with colleagues and is in love with beautiful Mavala Shikongo, who is a kindergarten teacher and veteran guerilla fighter from the antiapartheid "struggle." The weight of the brutal colonial and apartheid past is always there, but the freedom story is never reverential, and the taut vignettes, anguished and sometimes hilarious, are about ordinary people now. The novel is more situation than story, but there are scenes that will stay with you forever: the three illegal refugee children from across the border, who only want school, and then are gone after three days; the drought stories; the fence building (Why? How?); the farce of the Cincinnati community that sends an old broken piano "for the adorable little school somewhere in deepest Africa." Orner, a prizewinning short story writer, has lived in Namibia, and his debut novel brings close those far from the centers of power. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; First so stated edition (April 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316735809
• ISBN-13: 978-0316735803
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #891,789 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical and moving, March 7, 2007

By	A. - See all my reviews

I had high hopes for The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo as I loved Orner's first book, Esther Stories. This novel did not disappoint. It's a love story, but set in the remote veld of Namibia, it is also offers astute political commentary and a glimpse at history that few Americans will learn about in school. Orner's prose is elegant and funny, his descriptions of conflict and boredom, landscapes both internal and external, beauty in the everyday, are luminous.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A rich read!, April 29, 2006

By	armchairinterviews.com (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

"She's back."

In The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, author Peter Orner takes us to Namibia in the early 1990s, just after the country has won independence. He paints an oppressive landscape of isolation at an all-boys' Catholic boarding school where "the sand, trees, bushes, even the cows, were all the color of plaster." Though surrounded by desert, poverty and relentless sun, the people of Goas weave a vivid tapestry of life through their stories, songs and relationships.

This story is told by Larry Kaplanski, a volunteer from Cincinnati, Ohio, who's not sure why he's really come all this way to teach history and English in the middle of nowhere and among this band of misfits and characters. It's not until Mavala Shikongo enters his world with her little mustard-colored suitcase, sitting upon the only green patch of grass--called Ireland--that the days takes on new life and richness.

Mavala, the only single woman teacher to bless the boarding school "so far in the veld even the baboons feel sorry for us," is modern, restless and driven. She's a combat veteran who fought Namibia's long war for independence against South Africa. Her high energy and even higher-heeled stilettos are juxtaposed against the long languid days and people of a dry and dusty desert. She comes; she leaves and then comes back again--this time with a child, but no husband. Mavala remains an enigma throughout and all the men of the school are mesmerized by her mystery and are just a little in love with her.

This novel explores the thoughts and history of Goas through the stories of its people. It's full of spirit, tenderness and passion as we learn about values, love and the endurance of fellowship.

As we embark on "the tar road" in chapter one, we don't know what to expect but soon find ourselves captivated by the novel's journey and where it takes us. This is an extraordinary first novel by Orner who uses the sparest of exquisitely chosen words to invoke heart and soul into his landscape of characters.

Armchair Interview says: Peter Orner's heroes and heroines are insightful, funny and colorful and invite us into a surprisingly rich and beautiful world.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful staccato music!!!!!, May 2, 2006

By	Dagmar F. Pelzer (Miami, Florida) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I wanted to skim this book. I couldn't stop reading. Finished the whole book before even trying to put it down.

What a great read. Staccato. Short chapters, short sentences, half sentences. An English teacher's nightmare!! Staccato, like in music. Great.

Presented Namibia exactly like I have always imagined it. Dry, desolate, capturing. The people, the same. This woman, Mavala. Just as staccato as the book itself.

Read it, you will love it.