Out of Africa

Out of Africa is Isak Dinesen’s memoir of her years in Africa, from 1914 to 1931, on a large coffee plantation in the hills near Nairobi. Originally from Denmark, Dinesen came to Africa with her husband. Even though they eventually separated, Dinesen stayed on to manage the farm by herself and took a famous big-game hunter, Denys Finch-Hatton, as her lover. 


There's a reason why people keep reading Out of Africa decade after decade. It's a masterpiece, a memoir about life on a farm in Africa that is filled with such humanity, generosity, love, and nostalgia that it is impossible to resist. Dinesen does wonders at telling a rather simple story in ways that keep the reader captive. It's enchanting like a real, bittersweet, exotic, mysterious fairy-tale: with the author's words, her life on the African continent becomes an extraordinary adventure of almost epic size, even when the events she narrates are intimate and humble.