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What time is it?

Hi Cathy, Am on Canto 30 on Rain, reading on kindle but I think I’ll get the hard copy for a second read. You have a great writing style and bring out some interesting cultural aspects, especially the bits about naming of newborns, as well as some intimately described scenes that are well, quite interesting ?.

Some aspects though I feel a bit lost and need a little bit of help to understand. What timeframe is the story set in? Part of the early parts I guess must be in the times during the building of the railway 1896-1903?. However, that seems to be interspersed with more later times when Africans travelled abroad to study, as in the example given of the character who went to study in Russia, and died there (there are many deaths in the book) ?, or the lady who just left her family and travelled to the U.K on a whim based on an invitation? I don’t seem to get a time definition and my mind seems stuck with that. I may have missed something though.

Secondly, I am still trying to figure out Alex, the child who died at birth, but still lives on and interacts with his siblings, like a ghost ? ????

Thirdly, Is there a main character that runs through the book, trying to look for someone to relate with…

For sure we don’t seem to have a very wide reading source of our historical aspects so this is an interesting read.

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What Readers of Rain are saying…

Readers of Rain are making their voices heard!

“Rain’s meditation on life —fleeting, yet eternal— is beautiful in the fullest sense of the word. Its poetic sense of connectivity, in content & in rhythm, feels like the flow of memories in moments past, present & future.” — J. Fowler

“Reading Rain, I have to wonder: are we as Africans just really resilient, or do we simply not understand the disruption and brutality of the colonizers? Every student in school needs to read this book.” — T. Kibor

“Rain is addictive! A  pure delight to the senses… Listening to Canto 32, I felt like the dust in my soul was being washed away… like my spirit was washed being cleansed by the poetry of Rain!” — M.M. Green

“…written in prose, yet it sounds like Rumi!” —Anonymous

“…a story of immense beauty & astonishing resilience” — TK

“Mesmerizing! Rain will take you places!”