Burn My Heart by Beverly Naidoo

Set in the shadows of Mount Kenya (Kirinyaga) in the early 1950s following the colonial British Government's declaration of a State of Emergency, this book is the story of two friends, one white and one black. Mathew is 11, the son of a white farmer who himself grew up as the friend of Kamau, a native Kikuyu. Kamau now keeps Mathew's father's horses, and his son, Mugo, is a 13-year-old kitchen boy in Mathew's house, and Mathew's best friend. The story is told in chapters alternating between Mathew and Mugo's viewpoints, and chronicles the growing strain on their friendship as the Mau Mau guerilla war on the descendents of the white settlers who took Kikuyu land intensifies. Suddenly Mathew's family is suspicious of their black help, and a childish prank turns tragic and uproots the lives of all involved.

Naidoo uses straightforward, simple and elegant language with just enough Swahili words to tell this moving story. While the story is somewhat slow-moving at first, the pace picks up quickly, not through extensive action scenes, but in a ratcheting up of tension between the two families (and within, as Mugo's older brother is revealed to be part of the Mau Mau). The ending avoids any easy outs, and in fact avoids resolution altogether as each principal character is left facing hard decisions and inner turmoil. Some scenes of offstage torture and violence, a few "damn"s, and some racially derogative dialogue. Ages 11-16.