Baking Cakes in Kigali
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Meet Angel Tungaraza, professional cake-baker, amateur matchmaker, an ear to listen and a shoulder to cry on. A uniquely charming, funny and touching novel of life, life and food set in Rwanda, a country recovers from unimaginable terror and violence. Angel Tungazara has recently moved to Rwanda from her native Tanzania. With her husband, Pius, and the five orphaned children of their late son and daughter, she is hardly short of things to do. But she still finds time to pursue her hobby and her passion, her small but increasingly successful business, baking individually-designed cakes for the parties and celebrations of her neighbours and their friends. Angel is entirely aware that many of the Rwandans around her have witnessed and survived horrors she can barely imagine. But she also knows that their lives continue, that they also have reasons to celebrate, to be joyous and to be happy. As she gets to know her neighbours and as they tell her their stories, she comes to realise how much each of them has to mourn as well as how much they have to celebrate. And, finally, she comes to accept how much that is true of her too.
About the Author
Gaile Parkin was born and raised in Zambia, and studied at universities in South Africa and England. She has lived in many different parts of Africa, including Rwanda, where Baking Cakes in Kigali is set. She is currently a freelance consultant in the fields of education, gender and HIV/AIDS.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This style of this book is very much akin to the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series and Angel (the cake-maker in question) is very similar in many ways to Precious Ramotswe - wise, diplomatic, gently philosophical and traditionally built. But this story is set against a backdrop of unimaginable suffering - the Rwandan genocide and the subsequent AIDS epidemic. Each character has a different, often heart-breaking, story to tell. Ultimately though this book celebrates the endurance of the human spirit and remains humorous and up-beat. Angel's business thrives because, despite everything, people still have things to celebrate. Angel herself is a wonderful character, always ready to see the best in others and to do what she can to improve their situations. I really learned a lot from this book!
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Set in Rwanda, the intriguing quality of this novel lies in its incongruity: it deals with the aftermath of genocide with a surreal serenity. There is nothing in the writing style that is tense, ugly or staccato; what shocks is how matter-of-fact the characters are about the horrors they have endured. They have all been touched intimately by war and have for the most part survived in one fashion or another.
It is this question of survival that forms the leitmotif for the whole book. The various methods people use are explored through the experiences of the protagonists. The author offers no opinion on the 'correct' way but simply suggests how such unfortunates manage to survive at all.
The main character, Angel, is well-defined and believable in her calm manner and common-sense approach to her situation. I found some of the minor characters difficult to distinguish one from another because they are sketched almost thumbnail against the backdrop of compound life and not clearly enough defined on introduction.
It is hard to comment on the plot because there is not really a definable start-middle-end. The action strolls along much like life itself, which gives the book a familiar and almost insubstantial feel.
Towards the end, I felt a tighter editing would have helped as the prose meanders a little; the outline, vague to start with, grows fuzzy as it nears the horizon.
All in all, I found this novel easy to read, enlightening and sensitively written. It addresses a very difficult subject without any pathos or hysteria and is written with a lightness of touch that is refreshing.
It is this question of survival that forms the leitmotif for the whole book. The various methods people use are explored through the experiences of the protagonists. The author offers no opinion on the 'correct' way but simply suggests how such unfortunates manage to survive at all.
The main character, Angel, is well-defined and believable in her calm manner and common-sense approach to her situation. I found some of the minor characters difficult to distinguish one from another because they are sketched almost thumbnail against the backdrop of compound life and not clearly enough defined on introduction.
It is hard to comment on the plot because there is not really a definable start-middle-end. The action strolls along much like life itself, which gives the book a familiar and almost insubstantial feel.
Towards the end, I felt a tighter editing would have helped as the prose meanders a little; the outline, vague to start with, grows fuzzy as it nears the horizon.
All in all, I found this novel easy to read, enlightening and sensitively written. It addresses a very difficult subject without any pathos or hysteria and is written with a lightness of touch that is refreshing.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
'Baking Cakes In Kigali' is an absolutely delightful read. When I first came across the book, Alexander McCall's 'No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency' came to mind and they certainly share a homey, quaint atmosphere. However, set in post-genocidal Rwanda, and with the spectre of AIDs, "the sickness", always looming, the joy and the sorrow we encounter in the story contrast more sharply.
The book brims with life, its characters beautifully imagined and easy to love, each with their own quirks. Angel, the main character, is a no-nonsense, caring woman and even though in Kigali she is surrounded by the painful memories of so many other people, her own sorrows are dealt with poignantly. Humour softens the story's edge, and the author has a wonderful way with words - laugh out loud moments are guaranteed.
'Baking Cakes In Kigali' is not a fast-paced thriller but nevertheless it takes a hold of you so that you will only put the book down with the greatest reluctance. It creates a world you yearn to read more about, to immerse yourself in. I also think it will appeal to a wide range of people, with its themes of reconciliation, feminism and what Africa really means. My one criticism of the book is that I would've liked to read about the outcome of the event at the ending, although if more books about Angel and her world are to come, I won't mind waiting.
Recommended to everyone!
The book brims with life, its characters beautifully imagined and easy to love, each with their own quirks. Angel, the main character, is a no-nonsense, caring woman and even though in Kigali she is surrounded by the painful memories of so many other people, her own sorrows are dealt with poignantly. Humour softens the story's edge, and the author has a wonderful way with words - laugh out loud moments are guaranteed.
'Baking Cakes In Kigali' is not a fast-paced thriller but nevertheless it takes a hold of you so that you will only put the book down with the greatest reluctance. It creates a world you yearn to read more about, to immerse yourself in. I also think it will appeal to a wide range of people, with its themes of reconciliation, feminism and what Africa really means. My one criticism of the book is that I would've liked to read about the outcome of the event at the ending, although if more books about Angel and her world are to come, I won't mind waiting.
Recommended to everyone!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Can Cakes Heal??
When Angel Tungaraza moves to Rwanda with her husband and five orphaned grandchildren from Tanzania she arrives in a country still trying to heal with from the horrors of it's... Read more
Published 9 days ago by R. E. Quinn
sensitive, warming, colourful and thought provoking
What a great read. Gaile Parkin gave a unique insight into the day to day problems real people face in the aftermath of genocide and the current challenges that are faced... Read more
Published 10 days ago by Looby
Could have been an inspiring book
Reading other reviews of the book on Amazon, I realized that the publishers had tried to promote the book on the success of the Alexander Mc-Call Smith's success of the No 1... Read more
Published 15 days ago by Discerning Reader
A charming insight into the culture of Rwanda
I was completely captivated by the delightful Angel and her baking to support her aids orphaned grandchildren. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Capricorn
book review
Billed as the Rawandan answer to No.1 Ladies Detective agency stories. I love that series and found this a big disappointment.
Published 13 months ago by Ms. I. Lowe
Putting the world to rights with a cup of cardamom tea and a slice of...
I was drawn to this book because I'm a big fan of The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency and a lot of reviewers have commented on the likenesses between the characterisation and settings... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Nicola F (Nic)
Cardamom tea & sympathy
Set in Rwanda's capital, Kigali, this book centres around the life of Angel Tungaraza, who runs a business from home baking special cakes for special occasions. Read more
Published 21 months ago by H. Ashford
The Icing On The Cake
Set in Rwanda, six years after the genocide of 1994, this is a surprisingly warm, feel-good book undeniably in the style of Alexander McCall Smith's The No 1 Ladies Detective... Read more
Published 21 months ago by ratstails
Mildly entertaining
Baking Cakes In Kigali is a mildly entertaining read but I'm not sure it's any more than that.
Set in an apartment compound for foreign residents in Kigali, the capital... Read more
Set in an apartment compound for foreign residents in Kigali, the capital... Read more
Published 22 months ago by MisterHobgoblin
Pleasant but pretty dull
I saw this and was excited to think maybe there would be a second set of books to read set in Africa but soon discovered this is a very poor second indeed to No.1 Ladies Detective. Read more
Published 22 months ago by J. Southern
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
