Elephant Song

Recently, my husband and I were at a library book sale and walking through the aisles of used books, a title jumped out at me.  Elephant Song.  The title alone enticed me to add the book to my already bulging $5 sack of books. The cover photo and jacket synopsis did the rest.  The book was added to my stack of "must reads". 

Elephant Song by Wilbur Smith is an historical suspense novel taking place in Zimbabwe and London.  The book opens with a deeply disturbing and graphic description of the culling or slaughter of a herd of fifty elephant in the Chiwewe National Park of Zimbabwe. 

Since I visited Zimbabwe's Hwange National park in the late 1990's and saw several herds of elephant of this size, the opening events of  Elephant Song was even more appalling to me. Smith's writing is gripping and visual.  The reader becomes part of that unholy event. 

The opening chapter of Elephant Song brought back so many vivid memories of my visit to Hwange National Park and Zimbabwe in general.  What a life changing experience it was!