STONE KINGDOMS - DAVID PARK

So in 2015 the week before I went to Uganda, I walked into No Alibis Bookshop on Botanic Avenue and said to David Torrans that I wanted a book that would accompany me on that journey. Without a word he reached into a box and handed me Ishmeal Beah’s Radiance of Tomorrow. Though set in Beah’s native Sierra Leone it was an evocative companion on that trip.

So, in 2017 I returned to tell David of his 2015 success and test him again. Again, not a word, a quiet moment of thought, and off he went. He returned with a David Park book called Stone Kingdoms. Now I know Park. The Truth Commissioner and The Light of Amsterdam are up with my favourite reads. How could I not have known about a mid 90s novel set in Africa!

It was not too far in before I was shaking my head at Torrans' genius. The novel is written from a female point of view. Naomi was brought up as the daughter of a minister! U2 get an early reference. Then we discover that before she went to Africa she worked in north Belfast and we find ourselves wrapped up in Fr Alec Reid giving the last rites to those British soldiers horrifically murdered at IRA funerals in March 1988. I had just written a review of a book about Fr Alec when I started Stone Kingdoms.

The most of the book though is set in Africa as Naomi seeks an escape from her childhood and The Troubles by working in a Refugee Camp. Like many of us she finds escaping in this world much harder than she had hoped and her relationship with her father, the violence or Ireland and the abject poverty of Africa make this a dark novel. Do not read it unless you are up for some violence and the painful consequences in body, mind and soul.

For me, as a companion on this year’s trip to Uganda, it was very helpful. Park is a lyrical writer. He can conjure the look and smell and feel of a place. As someone on mission he also brought out some helpful insights in how sentimentality needs to give way to pragmatism when you go to help in Africa! 

Stone Kingdoms is serious... tough... beautifully written harsh realities. 

David, I’ll be back soon…