Bingo's Run: A Novel
Bingo Mwolo calls himself the greatest runner in Kibera, Nairobi, and probably the world. Don’t look for him in a marathon, however. The young Kenyan is a different kind of runner, a drug runner. In five years, he boasts, he has never been arrested, partly because he hews to his personal 12 commandments (e.g., Do not steal from someone poorer than you) and partly because he is a growth retard. Only four feet tall, he looks more like an innocent 10-year-old than the street-smart 15-year-old he is. Bingo is a ­survivor—until he witnesses a murder, and his drug-dealing boss, Wolf, sends him to the St. Michael Orphanage to keep him safe. There, Bingo is discovered by an American woman, Mrs. Steele, who adopts him. But is the woman, an art dealer, only using Bingo to find an elusive artist called the Master? And how do a corrupt police chief and an even more corrupt priest figure in this? Levine’s quixotic novel is a delightful entertainment. And Bingo is a captivating protagonist who tells his story in his own idiosyncratic voice. By its end readers will want to adopt him themselves. --Michael Cart