At first I thought I was not going to like this book and I nearly abandoned it. There is a very explicit rape scene and there is a scene where a cat is mistreated. However, having said that, life can be cruel and I wonder if this book attempts to describe human cruelty and superficiality at their worst. In its way it possibly illustrates the fact that society is pointing its finger at the wrong people.The story centres around a girl called Samantha. Samantha is only in her late teens. Her mother lives in England and her father lives with her in Tanzania. Her father does not really attend to her emotional needs. Samantha is a poor judge of character, quite normal at a young age. She gets involved with drugs and becomes infatuated with a man in his mid-thirties who makes her believe that he will leave his wife for her. Poor Samantha meets a horrible end, which may not necessarily been so if she had people around her would had helped her. In the end, I decided that this is not a book which you are meant to ‘like’. It seems to me that the purpose of the book is to make you ‘think’ about issues involving young people. It is a pity that Jakob Ejersbo died so young and before he could give an account of his book. So far, the books which I have read, youngsters seem to be the victims of adult indifference and neglect. I don’t think his books are mere stories, I suspect that he had a message for his reading public and I would be interested to know what it is. Eksil, is written by the danish author Jakob Ejersbo, and is following Samantha, who has lived in Tanzania since she was 3 years old. Even though she is born english, she has through her whole childhood felt like she is more black than white. She has never had a close relationship to her family, which consists of her father, mother and her older sister, Alison. Alison and Sam has always been able to rely on each other when needed. At Sam's boarding school she has never really felt normal, even though she has some people in her life, who is supposed to be her friends. Her stay at the boarding school consists more of smoking, drugs and sex, than schoolwork. Because of Sam's need of acceptance and support, she is flirting with a lot of guys, and this turns into a lot of problems for her.Eksil is a great book for both young people and adults. The main topic is the constant searching for acceptance and love, and the consequences of a childhood without those things. Worth reading (:
What do You think about Útlagi (2013)?
Read it in the original language, after visiting East Africa.
—Karen
Barsk og vedkommende "Nordkraft i Afrika"-roman, som er sv
—werew0lf_
A little brutal reality from Jakob Ejersbo
—Nony1379
