Baking Cakes in Kigali (2009)

Everyone needs a neighbor like Angel Tungaraza, a successful cake baker from Tanzania now living in Rwanda's capital city. Angel, whose warmth and coolheaded cleverness might remind some readers of Precious Ramotswe from the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, is raising her five grandchildren after the deaths of her son and daughter. As she wrestles with her own grief, she elicits the secrets and stories of her grieving friends and neighbors, many of whom are still reeling from the horrors of genocide. The plot of Gaile Parkin's Baking Cakes in Kigali is episodic and meandering, but there's a moving sense of urgency and pain underneath Angel's gentle demeanor. B

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