Tag: Mahua Cavanagh

Book Club Questions

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Does your book club plan to read Nairobi Ndoto? Here are some possible book club questions:

  • Between Tilly, Pauline, and Zara, who is your favorite character and why?
  • If you could meet one of them right now, what would you say to her?
  • If you adapted this book into a movie, who would you cast for each of the three main characters?
  • How much did you know about Nairobi or Kenya before reading this book?
  • Did this book change or challenge any preconceived notions you had about either?
  • How did the setting impact the narrative?
  • Have you ever traveled to the destinations described in this book?
  • Are there any places from the book you would like to visit?
  • From your point of view, what were the central themes of the book? 
  • Did you have a favorite quote or quotes? If so, share which and why?
  • If you could ask Mahua one question about the book, what would it be?
  • Pretend you’re a famous author writing a blurb for the cover. What would you say?

Last but not least: What food and wine would best pair with a Nairobi Ndoto book club meeting?

Meet Pauline

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Expat life means many things to Pauline. It’s an adventure. It’s a path to new professional opportunities. It’s a way to fix her strained marriage. She put all these hopes into moving to Nairobi. Things did not go as expected.

Now she’s trying to establish a life in Nairobi. She’s figuring out what to do about her marriage. She’s working as hard as she can to get her career back on track. But one thing after another keeps going wrong.

Pauline is struggling.

Expat life doesn’t always go as planned and isn’t always what you think it’ll be.

Meet Tilly

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Tilly and her family have been expats for ages. Nairobi was meant to be a two-year post, just the next stop in their many adventures abroad. Somehow, two years turned into nine without her even noticing it. She loves Nairobi, as do her husband and their three sons.

She stopped thinking of Kenya as a new, exotic location years ago. It’s just where she lives. She has practically become a local and her life is fully enmeshed in Nairobi. She hasn’t even thought about the next move, until now.

She’s ready for a new career, but is it worth exploring if they have to move in a year or two? Part of expat life is knowing that you have to leave at some point. But what if she doesn’t want to say goodbye? Could she stay?

My First Reading

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My reading at Shakespeare & Co. Booksellers went really well. I was blown away and awestruck by the turn out. As a new author, I had hoped for a handful of people – instead, we had the place fully packed! I am so grateful to everyone interested in Nairobi Ndoto who came out to hear me read. I hope everyone enjoyed the reading as much as I did.

Meet Zara

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Zara loves her job in child protection services. She believes in the work and is passionate about helping and protecting children. But, after many years in the field, she has grown tired of going from assignment to assignment every year or two. She hopes she’ll be able to find something solid in Nairobi, where she was supposed to be instead of shuttling back and forth to Mogadishu.

She’s ready to settle down. She wants to stay in one place long enough to make a real difference. That’s her ndoto, her dream.

Reminder: Reading This Friday

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I’ll be doing a reading of Nairobi Ndoto on Friday, March 3rd at 7:30 pm at Shakespeare & Company Booksellers. I’ll speak a little bit about the book and read from the first few chapters to give an introduction to the three main characters: Tilly, Pauline, and Zara. There will be wine and friendly faces.

If you’re in Vienna, I hope you’ll stop by.

A Reading at Shakespeare & Co.

Posted on by MC

I’ll be doing a reading of Nairobi Ndoto on Friday, March 3rd at 7:30 pm at Shakespeare & Company Booksellers. I’ll speak a little bit about the book and read from the first few chapters to give an introduction to the three main characters: Tilly, Pauline, and Zara. There will be wine and friendly faces.

If you’re in Vienna, I hope you’ll stop by.

Shakespeare & Co. is located at Sterngasse 2, in the First District in Vienna. You can take a look at the map below or scroll down a little further to see directions from the bookshop’s website.

The location can only be reached on foot, but from 5 directions:

barrier-free
from Hoher Markt (Busstop A1)
through Judengasse – next to the Vermählungsbrunnen
or from Schwedenplatz through Seitenstettengasse.

Up some stairs
you can take the Herzl-Stiege from Marc-Aurel Strasse,
the Jerusalem Stiege from Fleischmarkt/Rotenturmstraße
or the Ruprechsstiege from Morzinplatz.

Nearest Underground-Stations:
Schwedenplatz & Stephansplatz

Behind The Scenes

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I thought I would share a little bit about where and how I work. First off, I’m a plotter. I can’t write without an outline…and I’ve found that I also need something bigger and more visual than an outline. I need a large, foldable (so I can carry it with me) crime board/timeline.

Of course, there’s a lot that goes into the outline and timeline. I have various notebooks filled with ideas, research, and random thoughts.

Finally, when I’m ready and fully prepared, I write. Here’s my home office. This is where the magic happens. By magic, I mean writing, rewriting, revising, editing, and sometimes staring at the computer screen because the words aren’t coming out so easily on a given day.

And now, back to writing!

Meet The Author

Posted on by MC

I often write on this blog as though the reader already knows me. I’m a new author and many of my readers do actually know me. But not everyone does and, hopefully, this will become more and more the case as I develop an audience for my writing. For those of you who don’t know me, here are a few basics:

  • My name is pronounced phonetically (English language) with a hard “h.” Ma-hu-a/Muh-who-uh. German speakers rarely have a problem pronouncing it correctly. This has been an added bonus for me while living in Vienna.
  • I scuba dive.
  • I’m a big knitter. Seriously, I knit A LOT.
  • I’m an animal lover and very much a dog person. (Nothing against cats – I just prefer dogs.)
  • I am political and I may share my thoughts on this blog. I lean left/liberal. I believe in safe and legal access to abortion and gender affirmation surgery (both are health care). I believe black lives matter. I support LBGTQ+ individuals. I don’t care what bathroom you use as long as you wash your hands.
  • I’m married. My husband’s job is what took us from New York to Nairobi and then to Vienna, where we live now.
  • Our dogs are Nairobi street dog rescues. We brought them with us when we moved. They have adapted well to Vienna and are now full-blown, expat dog, princesses.

If you want to know more about me, you can follow me on Instagram or Tiktok. I post more often on Instagram and that account probably gives more insight into my day-to-day life.