N.S. Koenings, Blue Taxi

Blue Taxi

N.S. Koenings

Little, Brown, October 2006, $23.95

ISBN: 0316010618

In Vunjamguu East Africa, a drunk driver hits a young boy. Raised in a mission hospital, Belgium expatriate Sarie Turner tries to stop the child's bleeding with a tourniquet, while her daughter Agatha holds the lad's severed leg. Everyone in the small town is shocked by the tragedy, but especially stunned is Sarie, who feels like an outsider with the locals, and especially with her British husband Gilbert and his social climbing peers.

Sarie feels a need to visit the injured child Tahir, recuperating in the hospital. So in spite of Gilbert demanding she should not, she and Agatha visit the lad. There Sarie meets his distressed father, the widower Majid Jeevanjee. Though he is a Muslim, Majid and Sarie find a kindred spirit in one another, and she soon seduces him, while Gilbert panics that his "sponsor" Uncle James will abandon him without a pound, so he tries to persuade Majid to forge a business partnership.

THE BLUE TAXI is a historical look back to the 1970's when many African nations were struggling between an affluent decadent colonial upper class and the vast impoverished natives. The storyline cleverly uses its characters to represent differing, often in conflict groups. Though more a cerebral tale with little action, fans who enjoy a fascinating historical with a deep symbolic cast will want to read THE BLUE TAXI.