The African Equation by Yasmina Khadra

The African Equation by Yasmina Khadra
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Frankfurt MD Kurt Krausmann is devastated by his wife's suicide. Unable to make sense of what happened, Kurt agrees to join his friend Hans on a humanitarian mission to the Comoros. But, sailing down the Red Sea, their boat is boarded by Somali pirates and the men are taken hostage.

The arduous journey to the pirates' desert hideout is only the beginning of Kurt's odyssey. He endures imprisonment and brutality at the hands of captors whose failings are all too human.

As the situation deteriorates, it is fellow prisoner, Bruno, a long-time resident in Africa, who shows Kurt another side to the wounded yet defiant continent he loves.

A giant of francophone writing, Algerian author Yasmina Khadra takes current events as a starting point to explore opposing views and myths of Africa and the West, ultimately delivering a powerful message of friendship, resilience, and redemption.

Way too wordy and self indulgent what could have been
a gripping and insightful book ended up being a platform for superfluous rhetoric that really had no correlation to the situation the characters found themselves in.

All the characters sounded the same; their 'voices' were not individual and therefore made them appear hollow and unrealistic. Khadra choses to make one of the pirates so eloquent and well educated that it is inconceivable that such an apparently educated man would end up as a murderous thug. It just didn't ring true. It felt that the author was projecting his own thoughts and ideologies into his characters which in my opinion just didn't work.

Khandra's language is littered with clichés and overblown views that seemed out of place in what should have been a gritty and powerful novel. A thug who quotes literary giants one minute and beats the hell out of you the next just doesn't work.

The descriptions of the harshness and beauty of Africa come across well but the endless description of every hut, room and its contents just got tedious and unnecessary. It was way too long, skilful editing could have made a great difference to the end product.

I can't say I enjoyed it, I skipped and skim read several pages in an effort to move it on and I struggled to the end. I am sure there are better African authors but this was my first and it will be a long time before I try another. Not for me, sorry only 1 star

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.