Young American Aliya Scott travels to Tanzania to help children with her condition. There, people without pigment in their skin are called ?zeru-zeru,? it means ?ghost,? and they are believed to possess magical powers. When Aliya goes missing, her father sets out on a mission to find her. He soon discovers that she was up to more than teaching the alphabet and handing out sunblock. With each … step he learns more about his daughter and a country rooted in ancestry, rich with resources, full of mystery and conflict, and a world of witchdoctors and foreign plundering, with little transparency and less justice. From the shadow of the Mukuyu tree he follows her ?ghost? to the head of the dragon in Europe. But will he reach Aliya before it is too late?
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Based on true events, this book was so chiling about a subject that is little-known, that it gave me nightmares.
Very good read
Not for the faint of heart.
Differences are what makes life flow. The differences in people, animals and yes, books. This book is unlike any that I have read. It creates many emotions. It is a must read.
Moving book. Illustrated hate and misunderstanding of people who are different.
An eye-opening story on an ongoing tragedy. Character development is jerky and follow-up would be welcome
Pigment is a fictional tale about how albino people are treated in Africa. An African American albino woman goes to Africa with the plan of working with albino people who are persecuted, murdered and worse. The story starts out pretty well. And the writing while not perhaps exceptional is certainly adequate to tell the story.
Somewhere along the way toward the final quarter of the book, the author apparently had a deadline and made the decision to write a sequel. The final chapters appeared to be little more than a hurried draft. I won’t be buying the next book even though I would like to know more on this topic. I read the Kindle edition.
Pigment Review
I loved this book. It was very informative yet no so you would not realize you were learning something while reading. I always look up concepts, words, or theories I read to see if they are true or how close they are to the truth.
Another reason I liked this book is that I can understand what the author is trying to teach us about prejudice, fear, voodoo, witchcraft, mysticism among other things and how we treat others based on this fear of the other. I knew that from a previous Sociology Class while in college, but this point was brought even more so to my understanding. A must read. I would recommend this book.
The author tells a fascinating and engaging story, building characters that you care about and capturing their unique perspectives. The writing would benefit from a good editor to correct things like the consistent misspellings of words like “tchotchke” and “hail,” misplaced quotation marks, and confusing dialog. An excellent first draft.
This book gives us insight into a world we know little about. The struggle of little albino children in Africa who are hunted down and seized from their mothers because of a voodoo belief that they are witches. Another belief of the father’s is that the mother slept with a white man. This is the story of a young American girl, Aliya, who goes to a small village where a school of Albino children live with guards, to teach. She leaves one night with her friend Kennen and disappears. The writing is clear and precise as each chapter is about a different character. Although a very difficult topic, Renee Topper gives us an engrossing story that will stay with us for a long time…
I never knew that this was/is happening- disturbingly real and based on true events.
Couldn’t out it down!!
I thought it was a weird book. The story could have happened, But the way the Father went searching for his daughter, was a little bit of fantasy. One day he was here, the next day there. No way you can travel anywhere, the way he did.
The suspenseful story moved forward appropriately but I thought that, although the translations were provided, the author unnecessarily included dialogue in French. That added nothing to the story.
A realistic tale of human trafficking of a different caliber. The effort to protect the albino people of this country from being severely persecuted, maimed,and even killed all because of old fears, customs, and greed.
I would share this book with my grandchildren. It a good conversation starter.
Pigment is very well written, but also very sad.