The best books not only enlarge our understanding of the world, reading them enlarges and even transforms ourselves in relation to that world. Waiting for Charlie is that kind of book. Travel with Susan Zakin to Africa and you'll visit places Westerners rarely see and learn stories we rarely hear.

 

Susan J. Tweit, author, Walking Nature Home

 

 

Reading Waiting for Charlie is intimate and intense, plunged into the author’s voice and experience, right beside her, right inside her. You’ll go to Sierra Leone and you’ll go to Senegal. You’ll talk to people about Africa, to Africans and non-Africans who are suffering and who are worried, and you won’t feel pity—but you’ll feel close to them. You’ll think about the nature of cruelty. You’ll see the reality of slavery. You’ll briefly enjoy a country like Madagascar where “the colors looked brighter, and the rhythm of life felt fluid”...and then you’ll understand how easily and quickly all that beauty has disappeared. If you are at all interested in Africa, read this book.

 

Sharman Apt Russell, author, Diary of a Citizen Scientist, Knocking on Heaven's Door