Following Frank Coates’ success with books such as Tears of the Maasai and Roar of the Lion, his fifth book, The Last Maasai Warrior, won’t disappoint. Set in the 1800s in Africa, a baby is born holding a small stone in each hand, amid the swirling waters of a river. Legend tells that a baby of such nature could change the path of the Maasai people forever. As the baby grows and becomes a leader, he (Parsaloi) must contend with a British Government who promises great things for the Maasai tribes, but in truth, wants only to extend the land the white settlers own and banish the tribes to barren land in the south. Parsaloi also has to contend with a woman who is not of his age-set and wife to another man, therefore forbidden by Maasai tradition to have a relationship with him. This novel exposes a history of anguish and lies; a history that changed an unassuming people forever. The colour of the African land, the gentleness of the Maasai people, as Coates depicts them, and the deceit of the British come to life as the story unfolds. Lovers of Coates’ novels will lose themselves in this book.

Sharon Athanasos is a former bookseller and freelance reviewer

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

Tags: frank coates