The Nature of Things

This book tells something of the history of the land that was to become Kenya and how that country came to gain its independence from Great Britain. It is historical fiction laced with cultural insight into the three societies that struggled with each other and finally combined to form something new and unique. We have the native African culture, the English culture, and the Indian culture. Each in its own way contributed to the making of Kenya. This is also the story of three men and how their personal histories became tangled together. Richard Turnbull was a preacher from England whose mission was to convert the indigenous population to Christianity. Ian McDonald was the British colonial administrator sent to oversee the construction of a railway from Mombasa to the coast. Babu Salim was a technician from Punjab who worked as a surveyor and assisted in the construction of the railway. The lives of the three intersected around the turn of the the twentieth century and for the next six...