Kid Moses

by Mark R. Thornton

Overview

Set in Tanzania this atmospheric novel finds Moses wandering through the remote East African wilderness lost, hungry, and about to die. He is nine years old, a homeless street kid from the port city Dar es Salaam, and he has just buried his best friend. Attempting to flee the city violence and coaxed by the memory of his dead father, who dreamed of returning with him to the rural farm lands, Moses and his friend Kioso accept a ride from a disturbed stranger: a decision that eventually separates the boys. Searching for his lost companion, Moses journeys to the regiments of a rural orphanage and finally to the hallucinatory state of starvation as he curls under a tree in a dry wilderness to give up, but an unlikely cast of characters—the prostitute Grace; the shop owner Mama Tesha; the crippled fruit vendor; and the Ndorobo hunter-gatherer, Toroye—saves Moses from certain death, shelters him, and exposes him to a way of life and value system different from anything he has ever known. A stirring novel that juxtaposes urban homelessness with societies found in the wild, this work reminds readers that even amid places of violence and indifference, human compassion can be found.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781431402656
Publisher:	Jacana Media
Publication date:	01/01/2012
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	870L (what's this?)

About the Author

Mark R. Thornton is an internationally respected wilderness safari guide and conservationist with more than 15 years of experience. He has also contributed to Africa Geographic magazine and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

Editorial Reviews

Thornton keeps an even tone with the kind of spare, austere language that reflects Moses' stoic attitude and prevents the book from turning maudlin or crusading…Moses leads a difficult life, but he isn't a victim. His own decisions carry him…into many of the worst situations he faces. Thornton gives him the animating gift of irrationality, of making decisions not even he understands…He's a little boy with big contradictions, well worth following on his safari.

The New York Times Book Review - Nicholas Kulish

"I like Kid Moses very much! The prose is wonderfully quiet and controlled . . . very good writing indeed." —Peter Matthiessen

“Thornton keeps an even tone with the kind of spare, austere language that reflects Moses’s stoic attitude and prevents the book from turning maudlin or crusading. . . . [Kid Moses] is a little boy with big contradictions, well worth following on his safari.” —The New York Times Book Review

"With the excitement of the archetypal perilous adventure, Thornton's stark, beautiful prose will hold readers in this story of a young boy's struggle to survive in Tanzania today. . . . It's the crisply evoked small moments in this tale of a homeless kid on the run that give the novel its remarkable power." —Booklist, starred review

"[Moses's] is a rough, tough life forthrightly told. . . . Highly recommended for all fiction readers." —Library Journal, starred review

“Thornton excels in showing a harrowing adult world through the eyes of a child who has been forced to grow up early. In the end, this is the rare work of fiction about childhood that refuses to admit any sentimentality into the narrative.” —Publishers Weekly

"Kid Moses is a lyrical, touching and profound book." —The Witness, Durban, South Africa

"An open-ended odyssey, as restless and contemplative as a traveler in the trackless veld. . . . This is a wonderfully honest, unsentimental and brutal look at issues that are affecting Africa today." —Cape Times, South Africa

"An exquisite narrative, harrowing, yet poignant." —Bookslive

"I like Kid Moses very much! The prose is wonderfully quiet and controlled . . . very good writing indeed." —Peter Matthiessen

“Thornton keeps an even tone with the kind of spare, austere language that reflects Moses’s stoic attitude and prevents the book from turning maudlin or crusading. . . . [Kid Moses] is a little boy with big contradictions, well worth following on his safari.” —The New York Times Book Review

"With the excitement of the archetypal perilous adventure, Thornton's stark, beautiful prose will hold readers in this story of a young boy's struggle to survive in Tanzania today. . . . It's the crisply evoked small moments in this tale of a homeless kid on the run that give the novel its remarkable power." —Booklist, starred review

"[Moses's] is a rough, tough life forthrightly told. . . . Highly recommended for all fiction readers." —Library Journal, starred review

“Thornton excels in showing a harrowing adult world through the eyes of a child who has been forced to grow up early. In the end, this is the rare work of fiction about childhood that refuses to admit any sentimentality into the narrative.” —Publishers Weekly

"Kid Moses is a lyrical, touching and profound book." —The Witness, Durban, South Africa

"An open-ended odyssey, as restless and contemplative as a traveler in the trackless veld. . . . This is a wonderfully honest, unsentimental and brutal look at issues that are affecting Africa today." —Cape Times, South Africa

"An exquisite narrative, harrowing, yet poignant." —Bookslive

From the Publisher