The blurb on the back promises a multilayered novel with "sheer, poetic, minimalistic language"... Can't say I saw any of that. There are some really interesting themes that occasionally pop up in this novel, set in the first few decades of the 20th century in what is now Tanzania, a country that's always been a hub of trade and ideas from all over the Indian Ocean; but for the most part it's mired in an aimless, pedestrian story where most of what we know about the supposed protagonist is what others say about him, with endless descriptions of details that rarely seem to matter to the story. Disappointment.