Books like The book of secrets by M. G. Vassanji

In 1988, a retired schoolteacher named Pius Fernandes discovers a 1913 diary written by British colonial administrator Alfred Corbin in a shopkeeper’s backroom in East Africa. Pius becomes obsessed with uncovering the secrets the diary holds, which sets him on a transnational journey through his own past and the nation's history. Vassanji brings to vivid life the landscapes, towns, and cities of East Africa, from the days of the Great War, through independence, to the close of the eighties, revealing how the region’s Asian community and its diverse cultures, including English, Arab, Indian, and African traditions, intersect and shape the lives of ordinary people. Lying at the heart of the novel is a reflection on how storytelling itself becomes an act of connecting past and present, and an invitation to reconsider what we know about memory and the histories that surround us.

First publish date: 1994