Serengotti by Eugen Bacon

It’s best to begin this book when you have time to keep reading to the end - because from beginning to end, the pages just seem to turn themselves.

Written from the perspective of Ch’anzu, the language is delicious – “When you sleep again, your bed is a measure of inflection, reflection, a laboratory of nuance. Charting the tongues of your life’s every crease, jotting down colours, decibels, foam. Coalescence, cataracts of the past.” (p.60). There is a confection of current slang, Swahili and Bantu woven through the work and a glossary at the end of the book for readers looking for more information.

The book begins in Melbourne where the reader is on the scene as the life of Ch’anzu explodes. Ch’anzu loses hir job in dramatic circumstances and returns home to finds hir wife Scarlet in bed with another. Mired in depression, Ch’anzu seeks escape and accepts the opportunity to travel from Melbourne to work as a computer game designer in Serengotti outside Wagga Wagga in NSW (“You gotta say it twice.” (p.103).

Serengotti is a gated community that welcomes refugees from Africa (including child soldiers and widows) suffering the ongoing effects of war and violence. It’s a place where the community envelops suffering in a warm hug of healing, culture, good food and understanding. The unique personalities with whom Ch’anzu intersects, provide insightful connections with culture that allow hir to heal and help hir come to grips with hir vulnerabilities fuelled by the complex relationship with her twin, “Tex”.

This is a masterful and compassionate crafting of the experience of resilience, courage and maternal wisdom as told through the characters Aunt Maé, Moraa, Tau and Lau. Thought provoking and inspiring, this book will stay with the reader long after the last page is reluctantly turned.

Themes: Relationships (friends, family, romance), LGBTQ, Trauma, Identity, Belonging, Resilience, Refugees.

Linda Guthrie