7 /10
RATING

Fatboy and the Dancing Ladies

by Michael Holman

Snappy Review

The parody of the NGO’s will bring you tears, but the antics of the Mboya Boys and Charity will have you chuckling with their commonsense that prevails in a world  misconstrued by good intentions.

Book Synopsis

Ferdinand Mlambo, the youngest boy ever to become senior kitchen toto at State House, is in deep trouble. Disloyalty to Kuwisha’s Life President Nduka has not only cost him his prestigious job: the sinister chief steward to the president, Lovemore Mboga, has humiliated Mlambo by stripping him of his name. Word goes out: henceforth, he will be known as Fatboy. But with the help of Titus Ntoto, leader of the notorious Mboya Boys gang of street children, Mlambo sets out on a quest to recover his name and dignity.

In this sequel to the acclaimed Last Orders at Harrods, Michael Holman again combines the insights of someone brought up in Africa with the experience of nearly twenty years as the Financial Times’ Africa editor. With a sharp observant pen, he describes a world of abandoned street children, corrupt politicians, well-meaning aid workers, celebrity outsiders, self-deceiving donors, and the resilient residents of Kireba – Kuwisha’s worst slum – where the worldly but compassionate Mrs. Charity Mupanga presides over the popular rendezvous, Harrods International Bar (and Nightspot).