My edition of the book includes Shadows on the Grass, a shorter memoir on her time in Africa that was written years after Out of Africa. This isn’t an anthropological work by any means, but I loved hearing about the different cultural exchanges that went on in (what would become) Kenya during that time period.īy the end of the novel, you are so caught up in the Africa she paints that you are almost as heartbroken as she was when she/you have to leave it. Throughout the story, you’ll encounter many different interesting people and cultures, from her European associates to her Kikuyu and Somali workers on the farm to the mysterious Maasai who live nearby. As you read, you fall in love with Africa–its landscape, animals, and people–as she did. I feel that this is what Isak Dinesen did throughout her story–she wrote her truth about Africa. To me, at least, it makes sense that he would admire her, since he has also said,Īll you have to do is write one true sentence. When Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, it’s said that he claimed Isak Dinesen was more deserving of it than him. Beyond that, she is one of those rare writers who understands people, who understands life, and is able to express her thoughts in ways that ring true for the reader. The prose throughout the book is beautiful, and you can feel her love for Africa and its people on every page. I knew basically from the iconic first line, “I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of Ngong Hills”, that I would enjoy this book and I’m so glad I read it! The basic outline of the book–a wealthy woman moving from Europe to Africa in the 1920s and running a coffee farm there (largely on her own) for 17 years–is promising, but Isak Dinesen really pulled off a work of literature here.įirst of all, she can write. Places Explored: Kenya, especially Nairobi and the Ngong Hills area Author: Isak Dinesen (pen name of Baroness Karen Blixen)

Out of africa book dinesen