Kid Moses

In Thornton’s debut novel, a young Tanzanian boy is torn between the savagery of nature and the equal savagery of mankind. Abandoned on the streets of Dar es Salaam, 11-year-old Moses scratches out a meager existence with his friend, Kioso. On impulse, they jump onto a passing truck and don’t jump off until they are far away from the city. Not knowing how to survive in the wilderness, they try to make their way back home. They get separated, but later are happily reunited at a school in Dar es Salaam. Moses, increasingly restless, refuses to be constrained by four walls and once again heads for the wilderness, accompanied, as before, by Kioso. This time, tragedy strikes and Moses finds himself on his own until he is rescued by a hunter named Boyd and Toroye, his nomadic guide. At this point, Moses witnesses a cold-blooded act that makes him long to be back home. Although the novel is short, it includes a long list of terrible things that happen to Moses, who exhibits the combination of resourcefulness and tenacity necessary to survive in such a harsh environment. Thornton excels in showing a harrowing adult world through the eyes of a child who has been forced to grow up early. In the end, this is the rare work of fiction about childhood that refuses to admit any sentimentality into the narrative. (Oct.)