Beyond the Mango Tree

Sarina is American, but she lives in Liberia with her family while her father works for an African lumber company. Liberia is starkly beautiful and full of deliciously unique experiences. But though there are people like Te Te, the family's housekeeper, and Oldman Jacob, the night watchman, who have strange and wonderful stories to tell, what Sarina really yearns for is a friend her own age. Then, like a quenching rain after a drought, comes a boy called Boima, and suddenly life is recharged with all the magic and dreamlike adventure of childhood. But will the reality of Sarina's obligation to her family force her to make choices she doesn't want to make? Here is an affecting story of friendship and hope, loss and renewal from exceptional first-time novelist Amy Bronwen Zemser.