In 1959, the bad-tempered missionary Nathan Price leaves Georgia with his family “to bring salvation to the darkness” of Africa. Though rejected by the Baptist missionary board for lack of psychological fitness, he defies them, moving his wife and four daughters unsupported to the jungle to save the “savage” citizens of Belgian Congo. Set against Congo’s fight for independence, the story is narrated in turn by Nathan’s wife and four daughters. It spans 3 decades and follows the family’s falling apart and coming back together. It’s wonderfully written. The subtle transformation of the mono-cultural daughters into culturally-blended TCKs is illustrated deftly. TCKs from that part of the world will delight in the vivid descriptions of life in Congo – some poignant, some laugh-out-loud funny. That said, it is a story of pain and loss that paints an extremely bitter picture of Missions, and that may make it difficult for some MKs to appreciate. The author is a TCK (but not an MK) who lived in Congo in this era.
This is the autobiography of the best-selling British author M.M. Kaye, describing her childhood experiences in India in the early 1900s. The book is full of vivid descriptions of places and experiences that will appeal to many TCKs. Writing at age 82, she idealizes her early years in India and sees her return to England as a kind of purgatory, which some TCKs may relate to. M.M. Kaye’s autobiography continues with The Golden Afternoon, which tells of her return to India, and her sojourns in various countries as an adult.
The story of Wintere Ballesteros, a half English half Spanish heiress born in India but later raised in England, who dreams of returning to her childhood home, where she will finally belong. When she returns to India as a young woman betrothed to man she has never met during the Sepoy uprising, her life is in danger, but she continues to long for her childhood home.
A historical novel set in turn-of-the-century India, The Far Pavilions follows the life of Ash, a British child raised as an Indian by his foster mother, until he is returned to England as an adolescent. His subsequent struggles to recapture his sense of belonging when he returns to India as a British officer are woven into the saga with romance, war, princesses, misunderstandings and clashes of cultures in British-ruled India. The author M.M. Kaye grew up in India during the era of the British Raj and draws on her own experiences.
Channe Willis, daughter of a successful American novelist, enjoys her carefree childhood in France until her parents adopt a French boy exactly her age. Her resentment of him and cruel treatment of him makes their relationship turbulent. When her father’s illness causes the family return to the United States during her mid-teens, she and her brother struggle to find their places. It is not until adulthood that they learn to love and respect each other and Channe begins to confront the ghosts of that long-ago sibling rivalry.
Channe’s parents have a very liberal parenting style, and some of their responses to her behavior may offend some people (as may some of Channe’s behavior). However, many of Channe’s experiences as a child, and even as an adolescent searching for love in a new, unfamiliar country, will resonate with TCKs.
Christopher Banks, an English boy born in the early 1900s in Shanghai, is taken back to England as an orphan when first his father, then his mother disappear under mysterious circumstances. After he grows up to become a renowned detective in England, he returns to Shanghai to solve his parents’ disappearances, just as China’s war with the Japanese is heating up. Written in first person, Christopher’s early reminiscences about his childhood, and especially about his friendship with the Japanese neighbor boy touch on some familiar TCK experiences. But the experiences of the adult Christopher are surreal and the tone of the book changes as he ventures into a war zone trying to locate his parents, his judgement and perceptions distorted as he loses touch with reality. Although the mystery is resolved in the end, the experiences of the adult Christopher will not probably strike any chords with anyone who has not experienced a complete break with reality. Nevertheless, a well-written book by a talented author who personally experienced moving between countries as a child.
