Book set in Burundi &Tarifa – The Other Half of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen

Submitted: 21st June 2019

Augusta Hope and a story of Burundi – bookreview

The Other Half of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen – Augusta Hope has never felt like she fits in. At six, she’s memorising the dictionary. By seven, she’s correcting her teachers. When she’s eight, she spins the globe and picks her favourite country on the sound of its name: Burundi.

What follows is the lovely and heartwarming story young woman discovering what it means to belong. We all need to belong somewhere and with someone and this book tears at your heartstrings and pulls you in.

BookTrail the locations in The Other Half of Augusta Hope

Book set in Burundi - The Other Half of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen

BookTrail the locations in The Other Half of Augusta Hope

Setting: The story of a girl fascinated with Burundi

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The Other Half of Augusta Hope is a quirky read on a par with Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. I say on a par as there’s a quirky main character who is alone in the world and who everyone thinks strange.

It’s also similar due to the beauty of the writing and the subjects within. That’s the end of the comparison as Augusta stands on her own two feet (as does Eleanor)

I liked Augusta from the off. She’s considered off as she loves dictionaries and books. Well, hello! A lot of what she said and did took me back to childhood days and I think that’s how Augusta started to get under my skin and how she will with other readers too.

She travels to Spain in search of many things, herself included. That’s where the story of another person without a place in the world ends up. Parfait is, like his name suggests, perfect in many ways. He’s the other half for Augusta, lives in another country, yet shares so many traits with her.

She’s from England and he’s from Burundi and these two cultural differences are what drive the story. Very opposing experiences yet what brings them together is human contact and emotion. We all look for some where to feel safe and loved. Burundi, England become the shared story of Tarifa in Spain , where the locations take the story to their joint conclusion.

The locations worked really well here to propel the story, share the history and showcase how differences can make us more similar than we would think. More unites people than divides them. What a message for life in general.