Memories of cool waters

Set in the 1980s and 1990s, this novel interweaves the life of a young biracial woman and Kenya's maturation. An emblematic character, Jacaranda symbolizes a generation that came of age during Kenya's transformation from a dictatorship to a society on the verge of democracy. As the novel opens, Jacaranda's childhood is as idyllic as the Nairobi suburbs where she lives with her white mother and maternal-grandmother, descendants of the colonial settlers. Yet the absence of her father and vague memories of violence hint at a darker past that will eventually be revealed as Jacaranda meets her father, who was taken political prisoner following the failed coup attempt in 1982, and comes to terms with her heritage in a country overrun by American imports and entertainment. The novel ends with the 1998 bombing of the United States Embassy and a difficult choice that the nearly adult Jacaranda must make.