Review of Call of Zulina
September 4, 2009
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Abingdon Press (August 2009)
by
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Of Kay Marshall Strom’s 34 published books, four have been book club selections, nine have been translated into foreign languages, and one has been optioned for a movie.
Her writing credits also include numerous magazine articles, short stories, two prize-winning screenplays, books and stories for children, and booklets for writers. Her writing has appeared in several volumes, including More Than Conquerors, Amazing Love, The NIV Couple’s Devotional Bible and The NIV Women’s Devotional Bible, and The Bible for Today’s Christian Woman.
Her work also is included in a number of compilations, including various books from the Stories for the Heart series. Her best-known book is Once Blind: The Life of John Newton, which is packaged with the recently released DVD Amazing Grace. She also has written several books with her husband, Dan Kline. Kay is a partner in Kline, Strom International, Inc., leaders in communication training. She currently lives in Eugene, Oregon.
As an activist against modern slavery, Kay Strom takes an indirect approach to calling attention to that issue with her newest fiction title, the first of three planned in the Grace in Africa series, set in West Africa in 1787.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Grace Winslow, the daughter of a mixed marriage between an English sea captain and an African princess, is swept up in a slave revolt after she escapes the family compound to avoid an odious betrothal.
As the truth about the fortress of Zulina unfolds, Grace begins to grasp the brutality and ferocity of the family─the capture and trade of slaves.
Despite being held for ransom, viciously maimed by a runaway slave, and threatened with death, Grace sympathizes with the plight of the captives. She is especially moved by the African Cabeto’s passion, determination, and willingness to sacrifice anything, including his own life, for his people’s freedom. Leaning on the faith of her nanny Mama Muco, Grace risks everything to follow her heart.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Call Of Zulina, go HERE
Sally Says: Remember a few reviews ago when I said Pirate Hunter had one of the most heartbreaking depictions of life on a slave ship? I have to take it back. The Call of Zulina is the story of a daughter of a slave trader and her eye-opening exposure to the treatment of slaves in Africa.
Since I’ve had kids, I have a hard time reading stories where people are abusing others. I’m not talking a good suspense story or anything like that but just stories where horrible cruelty is acted out on others. And that happens in this book. Grace’s English father owns a slave fortress and through her attempt to avoid the man her parents want her to marry, she ends up at the fortress and is trapped in the middle of a slave revolt about to explode.
Not only is Grace’s father cruel and cold-hearted, but so is her mother Lingongo, an African princess, who has no problem with capturing other Africans and putting them in manacles until there are enough for a slave trader to buy and take to the Americas. The treatment of the slaves in the fortress, the casual neglect of basic necessities and human life — it was difficult for me to read at times.
I did have a hard time following some of the events throughout the book, and I found some technical problems with the story which always diminishes how much I enjoy a book. But I think those who grew up with historical Christian fiction will enjoy The Call of Zulina. The author’s bio says that she’s an activist against modern slavery, and you have to admire her desire to open the eyes of others to what’s still going on in the world. I hope this book does everything she hoped for and more.