The Girl Who Married a Lion: And Other Tales From Africa

✍ Scribed by Smith, Alexander Mccall

• Book ID: 107159948
• Publisher: Pantheon
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 82 KB
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

Gathered here is a beguiling selection of folktales from Zimbabwe and Botswana as retold by the best-selling author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. This treasury contains most of the stories previously collected in Children of Wax and seven new tales from the Setswana-speaking people of Botswana.

A girl discovers that her young husband might actually be a lion in disguise, but not before they have two sons who might actually be cubs . . . When a child made of wax follows his curiosity outside into the heat of daylight and melts, his siblings shape him into a bird with feathers made of leaves that enable him to fly into the light . . . Talking hyenas, milk-giving birds, clever cannibals who nonetheless get their comeuppance, and mysterious forces that reside in the landscape—these wonderful fables bring us the wealth, the variety, and the particular magic of traditional African lore.

From Publishers Weekly

Straying from the safety net of a bestselling series (The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency , etc.), Smith tells 40 traditional African folk tales with his by now signature humor, simplicity and reverence for African culture. With an introductory letter from No. 1 Lady Detective Mma Ramotswe as a preface, he sets the literary stage for a nostalgic stroll down his own personal memory lane. Born and raised in what is now Zimbabwe, Smith began collecting these stories as a child and combines them with several he gleaned from a friend who interviewed natives of Botswana. Many of the stories parallel classic Western tales, from Aesop to Mother Goose. The ubiquitous wolf-in-sheep's-clothing fable becomes a parable about a girl who unwittingly marries a lion. Other stories deal with familiar themes ranging from ingratitude (in "Head Tree," a man cured of a tree growing out of his head does not pay the charm woman her due) to vanity (in "Greater Than Lion," a hare outwits a conceited and boastful lion). However, many are uniquely African, such as the stories that explain why the elephant and hyena live far from people or how baboons became so lazy. These are pithy, engaging tales, as habit-forming as peanuts.
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From Booklist

Starred Review Spiteful leopards. Reprehensible hares. A proud, heartless hunter who goes from predator to prey. Moral flaws plague man and animal alike in this engaging gathering of traditional folktales from the best-selling author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and its sequels. Scotsman McCall Smith, who lives in Edinburgh, was raised in Zimbabwe and pays frequent visits to Botswana (the latter's real-life village of Gabarone is home to his fictional detective, Mma Precious Ramotswe). Although this collection carries McCall Smith's byline, the stories themselves are the property of the generous, good-humored Africans who have told them for generations (the author--with the assistance of an interpreter--heard many of them firsthand). In the title selection, a girl weds the "king of the jungle," then wonders whether her two offspring are boys or wild beasts. These deceptively simple tales remind us that "we are not the masters of nature--we are part of it," writes McCall Smith in the introduction, a message that citizens of the Western world would be well advised to keep in mind. Preceding this spirited offering is a brief letter from Mma Ramotswe herself, who ponders the lore of her beloved homeland while preparing a pot of bush tea. Allison Block
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