A young boy is fooled into travelling from India to Africa to assist in building the railroad. This novel follows that boy as he grows, meets his wife Sonal, also an immigrant, and his family through several generations. It truly is an epic story of family love and difficulties amid a background of immigration and racism. The heart of the story is the plight of the Asian community in Uganda as the country moves from British rule to independence to the Idi Amin regime. 

I’d have happily given this book the full 5 stars except for a couple of issues. The language was very particular to the Asian and African communities and I spent a lot of time looking up the meaning of things. I was reading an ebook version but perhaps the physical copy has an explanation given. Secondly there were large chronological jumps in the story which I felt broke the rhythm and left me, the reader, wondering exactly how things might have happened in between. 
All in all, well worth a read. 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for this review.