An exotic setting, a spiritual odyssey, and a geopolitical conflict--The Zoo is a great read!

I read Keith Brown’s novel The Zoo: A Novel of Intrigue and Deception on the East African Coast in 2 sittings--it's very readable! I wish that my university English students could write amazing prose like this. The Zoo is a stellar example of popular fiction, enhanced by Brown’s erudition throughout, covering so many fields of knowledge, from African history, culture, and politics, to interfaith dialogue, to an array of European cultural references. I like how Brown’s idea of the interfaith community in Mwakindini, Kenya functions as a kind of metaphor for the current multiculturalism and politically correct pluralism being celebrated in many parts of the Western world. Brown’s nuanced assessment of pluralism conveys his tact and wisdom. I loved all the references to life in Kenya in the 1980s. The novel, situated on the shores of the Indian Ocean, has a tantalizing sense of place. The main character, Brett Morris James, is a likeable and intellectually and spiritually vibrant character whose consciousness gives the novel a moral soundness and good horse sense. Brown’s prose is beautifully clear and I believe the manuscript is devoid of grammatical or typographic errors. This work represents a great achievement as a first novel, and I believe it outshines much of the popular fiction that occupies privileged space in bookstores. If you want to be transported to an exotic locale and swept up in a conflict that has uncanny geopolitical implications, try Keith Brown’s The Zoo.

- Kirsten Anonby