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A review by fridayeblack
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba
4.0
I highly recommend this book to everyone. It is such an uplifting and interesting story I think most readers will find something positive to take away from it. If you know nothing about Malawi, you will learn a lot. If you know nothing about electricity or agriculture, you might also learn something.
The overall tone is upbeat, that seems to be William Kamkwamba's personality, but he is telling the story of his life and Malawi during some very hard times. There are some very sad moments in his story but he also shares the colourful parts of Malawian culture.
This is not a good book for it's beautiful writing or flowing narrative, it is a good book for it's content. It is a short memoir and written simply. I listened to some talks from William on YouTube after reading this, and while his English is broken you can tell he has humor and a great ability for storytelling. I think the translator has done a good job of bringing William's manner of speaking into the writing. The book doesn't shy away from hard truths but it doesn't dwell on them either. It reminds the reader that the only way forward is to do something about it.
The overall tone is upbeat, that seems to be William Kamkwamba's personality, but he is telling the story of his life and Malawi during some very hard times. There are some very sad moments in his story but he also shares the colourful parts of Malawian culture.
This is not a good book for it's beautiful writing or flowing narrative, it is a good book for it's content. It is a short memoir and written simply. I listened to some talks from William on YouTube after reading this, and while his English is broken you can tell he has humor and a great ability for storytelling. I think the translator has done a good job of bringing William's manner of speaking into the writing. The book doesn't shy away from hard truths but it doesn't dwell on them either. It reminds the reader that the only way forward is to do something about it.