Paula McLain: Circling the Sun, Ballantine US, 9780812999327

I really enjoyed Paula McLain’s previous book “The Paris Wife”  and had been wondering what this great storyteller was up to next.  When I read that her new book “Circling the Sun” was about Beryl Markham’s life in East Africa, I could not wait to get my hands on a copy. This has to be my favorite book of the summer, I read it while on vacation in Italy when it was too hot to do anything and I just could not put it down.

When I had saved enough money to go to Kenya on safari in 1977, I remember stepping of the plane sniffing Kenyan air for the first time and feeling enchanted.  I fell in love with the place, the beautiful countryside, the animals and the amazing stories that had been told about the early European and American settlers living side by side with the East African tribes. 

Since then I have read my fair share of books set in Africa, Beryl Markham’s autobiography “West with the Night” being one of the most interesting ones.  This very extraordinary woman lived a most unusual  life even by East African standards  of the early 20^th century, where everything  seemed possible , the crazy Happy Valley set,  Lord and Lady Delamere, Baron and Tania Blixen’s  setting standards  to name just a few unconventional eccentric  characters .  Beryl became one of the first female horse breeders /horse trainers and the first female air pilot soloing in 1931. She always led a very independent life, often hitting rock bottom having to start all over from scratch. She was  famous for the many lovers she took and a difficult marriage following in a disastrous divorce.  But Beryl found her true love and soulmate in Denys Finch Hatton whom we all know as the famous lover of Tania Blixen in “Out of Africa”, spelling heartbreak and complications from the start. Paula McLain follows Beryl Markham’s real life very closely in this historical fictionalized memoir and she does this brilliantly retelling her incredible life.