By Ogova Ondego
Published November 7, 2022
An elderly Kenyan returning home from Britain chances upon a young medical nurse returning from a social trip in South America. The meeting not only touches off a series of incidents that pit the old against the modern but also invites debate on what happens when time-honoured views about love, marriage, culture and progress are turned on their heads.
This is the summary of a new novel by writer David Maillu. Titled Crossing the Red Line, the 188-page novel that is published by Moran Publishers of Nairobi is a gripping tale of social strife and conflicting worldviews.
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The novel, that has a full colour image of the man, called Dama and the petite young woman, called Jondu, exchanging phone numbers while standing beside a car in front of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, is as engaging as it is dramatic.
David G Maillu, Kenya’s father of pop literature, needs little introduction as he is one of the most published African writers.
He says writing Crossing the Red Line took him three months and that his aim is to address thorny social problems that are affecting modern Kenya.
Maillu says he is already writing another book with the working title, Ka-Something.
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Do I have to remind you that Maillu is also the writer of titles like Pathways: Kenya at 50, Behind The Presidential Motorcade, Mwanzo The Nairobian , Man From Machakos, The Black Adam And Eve, The Government’s Daughter, My High School Love, African Indigenous Political Philosophy, My Dear Mariana, Ki’ Kyambonie, Forgive And Forget, Mbengo And The Princess, Kisa Cha Peremende, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Cost Of Being Beautiful, Beautiful Wendo, The Ayah, Untouchable, The Kommon Man, Our Kind Of Polygamy, Kadosa’s Diary, Broken Drum, Precious Blood, Poor Child, After 4:30, My Dear Bottle, Without Kiinua Mgongo, and Unfit for Human Consumption?
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