A review by msjoanna
Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe by Doreen Baingana

5.0

While this book is called a set of short stories with interconnected characters, it reads best as a whole. The book tells the stories of three sisters, focusing mostly on Christine with a couple of stories from Rosa and Patti. The writing is immensely powerful and the stories are extremely compelling. In particular, the stories tracing Christine's time working in the United States (in Los Angeles and Washington, DC) before returning to Uganda tell the story of identity, race, politics, diaspora, and power in an incredible way. The book also unflinchingly reflects the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and its effect on modern Uganda through the personal story of Rosa in a letter to a former lover. Highly recommended.