Another book on Kenyan Girls in Germany

Wer Bist Du Malaika Book Cover Tom Linden

Seems every year, we have a book written about Kenyan girls in Germany. However, this time, it’s more of a novel about a novel. Confusing, I know. A work of fiction following the life of a German journalist from Berlin, who falls in love with a Kenyan au pair.

A mixture of fiction and real life experience, the book mixes German and Swahili in sharing an adventure set in Lamu and Berlin.

Wer Bist Du Malaika Book Cover Tom LindenWer bist du, Malaika? (Who are you, Malaika?)

Christoph, a German travel journalist falls in love with a Kenyan au pair in Berlin, Shakila. Shakila’s visa is about to run out and she wants them to get married immediately. However, Christoph gets a contract to write a story about the coastal island of Lamu, along the Kenyan coast. The books are written in Swahili.  Assuming Christoph is your typical German, who can’t read nor understand Swahili, Shakila requests him to bring along her books she’d left in Kenya that she’d like to have back.

Christoph decides to use his Swahili skills to read to the book, but how much of the book is really about Shakila and what is fiction? Will Christoph and Shakila get married? Who is Malaika? What happens when Christoph returns to Berlin?

Interested in finding out? You can get the book on Amazon, the Kindle version is currently free.

Have you read it? What do you think?

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