num_pages: 336
description: This diaspora novel is a celebration of Indian and African culture seen through the eyes of a young woman. As a member of an Indian minority in a small African country, Shaza’s life is complicated. She lives in a lively house full of relatives. Later, she meets Idi Amin, the bloodthirsty Ugandan dictator and has a narrow escape…  Shaza goes to a convent school. Despite the strict rules, the girls are beginning to discover the opposite sex. Shaza is part of a Muslim family that emigrated from India, the old ways still rule. No one in Kenya dates, they just sneak around. Shaza falls for a Hindu boy, Sameer is smitten but they come from two different religions. Shaza is torn between her sense of duty and longing for Sameer. Will the relationship survive her family’s disapproval and a long separation? They live in difficult times in a turbulent African country; Shaza’s cousin is almost killed by thugs and Kenya has a coup d’état where the Indian minority is targeted. The saga follows Shaza’s life from the 1960’s to the 1980’s showing the political upheavals in Kenya and her move to the United States. Nairobi Days is a coming of age story, a love story, a political novel and above all a celebration of life.  Shelina Shariff-Zia grew up in Nairobi, a tomboy who was always getting into trouble. She is the fifth generation of an Indian family who migrated to Kenya from Gujarat. She moved to Texas to study literature at Rice University. After earning an M.A. at Columbia, she became a journalist. She now teaches college students at CUNY in the Bronx.
language: English
title: Nairobi Days
publisher: Dog Ear Publishing