Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika): Like City of God, also based on a true story: A Jewish family escapes Germany in the 1930s and finds refuge in Kenya. The narrator is the daughter, who, we are told, was shy and fearful in Germany. She comes of age and into her own in Africa. With the help of the family cook, she is soon speaking Swahili and befriending local children. Her father, a lawyer in Germany, throws himself into their new life, but longs to return home after the war to heal his country. Her mother, resisting everything at first—she chooses not to unpack the fine china on her arrival, because she doesn't plan to stay long—comes to love their little farm and does not want to leave. It's hard to descibe this wonderful, engrossing story without using cliched words like "sweeping" and "romantic." The scenery is lush and gorgeous, and watching the erosion of these refugees' European customs and formalities in a strange land is both saddening and invigorating.