Palace of Desire (The Cairo Trilogy #2), 1957 by Naguib Mahfouz

At long last I am finally done with this novel. Last two years I read the first part of the trilogy which I thoroughly enjoyed, please click here. In Palace of desire, the family saga continues. Al-Sayyid Ahmad is done mourning the death of one of his sons who died in the first sequel, he went back to his life of alcohol and women, though he realised he has aged. He decides to keep a young mistress. 

Kamal his youngest son falls in love with a

Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter, 1997, Pamela Jooste *****

Dance with a Poor Man's daughter is the story of one of the "coloured" families forced to relocate from the Cape Town area known as District Six in South Africa during apartheid, told through the eyes of a little girl. 

District 6 Memorial Plaque

ALL WHO PASS

Remember the thousands of people who lived for generations in district six and were forced by law to leave their homes because of the colour of their skins. Remember St. Mark's Church and the community who resisted the destruction of district six. -Hands Off District Six Campaign 11.2.1989

Lily lives with her grand mother, her aunt Stella and uncle Gus-Seep (that is how she calls and spells his name). Her mother Gloria left for Johannesburg because the valley is too small for her. Lily loves her grandmother more than she loves her mother, which she makes clear.

'You don't always like your mother as much as you would like to, do you Lily?' he says and I don't even have to answer him because he knows it's true.

The Group Area Act is approved, Lily and her family are forced to leave their house and move to the flats. Her mother, from Johannesburg hears what is going on and decides to fight in order to make sure that the house where  six to

Palace Walk (The Cairo Trilogy #1), 1956, Naguib Mahfouz *****

Palace  Walk is a story set in the beginning of the 20th century. The story of Ahmad Al Jaawad and his house hold in a continuously evolving Egypt. He has a son, Yasin, with his first wife. Their marriage is quickly followed by a divorce because she is a woman of her own ways and wouldn't tolerate her husband's control.

Ahmad marries for the second time to Amina, a submissive woman in every sense of the word. Together they have Khadidja, Aisha, Fahmy and Kamal. Ahmad rules his household with an iron hand and instills fear in his children and wife. For instance, he asks his wife to leave when he finds out that she left the house without his permission in his absence.

However, what his family does not know is that Ahmad is a totally different character when he is with his friends, he loves music, women and wine. Yasin, his oldest son, soon discovers his father's other facet and realises where his own

The Book of Negroes, 2007, Lawrence Hill *****

Aminatta Diallo born in Bayo, a small village in Western Africa, while returning from attending to a woman in labour with her mother she is abducted and sold into slavery at the age of eleven.

Her journey begins with the long walk towards the coast of West Africa to be shipped to the Americas. She survives the long walk and the sea, however she witnesses how her people were being dehumanised .

On her arrival, she is sold to the owner of an indigo plantation. Luckily, she reconnects with Chekura, a young boy with whom she walked the long walk and sailed the sea. They fall in love and try to form a family. The question here is, how do you really form a family when the law turns you into someone's property.

Her husband Chekura is sent away, she is resold and separated from her