My debut novel Kololo Hill was chosen as a 2021 Pick for Foyles, The Daily Mail, The Irish Times and Cosmopolitan. The novel focuses on the lives of Asha, Pran, Jaya, and Vijay, who are forced to leave behind their home in Uganda and embark on a journey to an uncertain future in Britain. Shah explores the chaos and fear of ordinary people’s lives during Amin’s rule, weaving personal stories of love and betrayal into heightening tension and violence . Ashamed to say I didn’t know much about the Asian expulsion in Uganda and feel pleased to have read this fictionalised account. Motichand and Jaya arrived in Uganda from India many years ago, and the beautiful green hilltops of Kololo Hill are very much their home now, they’ve made a decent life for themselves and have been very happy.

I liked how Shah explored the conflicting feelings the characters had towards what had happened to them and their home country. There were also the cultural differences, the hardship, and the hostility that they faced on a daily basis. Kololo Hill” is a testament to the enduring human spirit in the face of adversity and a reminder of the importance of remembering and honoring the stories of those who have experienced displacement and upheaval. A poignant story of a family who lost everything they loved, trying to rebuild their lives in a country so different from their own, and one where the welcome they received, was as cold as the weather.These characters together paint the sensitivity of love, anger, and fear while horrors unravel and hope persists. Around 80,000 Asians - some of them born and brought up in Uganda and knowing no other home - were expelled from the country.

I enjoyed reading this book in as much as it filled the gap in my knowledge of how this affected these victims and how they instantly applied their industry to forging new lives for themselves in a strange country that enjoyed only a temperate climate. How you adapt to a completely different culture and country where the welcome is as warm as the weather. However, I adore the mutual respect that they have for each other and the way that their relationship deepens throughout the book! Uganda comes alive in the capable hands of the author, the smells, the feel and the food, and in England their experience is, of course, discombobulatingly different.In this way, Shah allows the actions and moral compass of Amin to become a dialogue between reader and text, as opposed to a one-sided diatribe. Neema Shah’s storytelling is both engaging and thought-provoking, making it difficult for readers not to become deeply invested in the lives of the family.

Its a strange co-incidence that the exodus of Ugandan Asians in 1972 has been so little written about and then along come two books on the subject. The novel also sheds light on the economic disparities within the Ugandan Asian community and the challenges of adapting to a new culture. The first half comprises of Uganda, a sunshine land where happiness abounds for the family and where prosperity is theirs, and of Britain, a frozen place where they slowly start to find themselves again despite the challenges.Amin’s dictate, motivated by insecurity and greed, was particularly cruel in this regard, giving families only 90 days notice to leave the country, under the threat of rape, internment or, in many cases, murder. The conflict here is quieter but no less urgent, as individuals come to question not only their culpability in past events but their choices going into the future, with the realisation that dire circumstances can sometimes be the precursor to change for the better.