Lying Perfectly Still - Laura Fish

 I read this book and drafted this review before the tragic news that Laura Fish had passed away. Her book publishes today in Black History Month. Through her work her legacy lives on. 

Lying Perfectly Still by Laura Fish is an observation of the corruption within the aid industry from a fictional perspective.

Set in Swaziland Koliwe (Xolile) raised in England, but returning to the land of her late father begins a hopeful career as an aid worker. But soon finds herself caught up in cultural and moral conflicts, which cause her to question everything and everyone.

The novel is a quite beautiful and sustained exploration of a world where beliefs contradict each other around every corner, and one girl gets caught up in it all. Koliwe is a mass of contradictions. There are times when you want to protect her from the evils that are lurking and threaten to engulf her vulnerability and naivety. There are other times when she seems to perceive the entire root of the problem and behave accordingly. Her dual name suggests this paradox within her, a split personality almost. Xolile is the Swazi pronunciation of her name. I certainly felt a lot of empathy towards her and the disillusion that she was experiencing. It’s very well portrayed by the author and I found Koliwe a very endearing character. I cannot say the same for Cameron Cuthbert! An exacting portrayal of an odious and immoral man. And you get to wonder how somebody so obnoxious secures a position of seniority.

In tandem with Koliwe’s story is also the story of a Swazi girl, Thandi which will break your heart. Or at least it broke mine. It offers an injection of mystery and intrigue into the novel as well as further highlighting the failures in some aid programmes. 

I’ve always been in admiration of aid workers believing that their input could only improve the lives of those in developing countries. This book has challenged that, perhaps very stereotypical, perception. I’m sure that there are some excellent aide agencies out there, but for the purposes of this fiction, this particular organization fails to meet the needs of its community. And there also seemed to be an incredible gulf between the local people and the bureaucrats and foreign aid workers.

I think that one of the mistakes the Western world makes is that it only tries to understand different cultures from its own perspective instead of from the perspective of that particular culture so in effect, there is no real understanding, and without that effective aid can’t take place. I think the book illustrates this very well.

I found it fascinating to read about the rituals performed formed by the indigenous peoples, such an important part of different cultures and I thought that in this instance opened Koliwe's eyes to her heritage and allowed her to connect with her ancestry.

It's certainly a book that poses questions and considerations for the reader to ponder. It's not a light read but it's well written and engaging.

My thanks to Fly on the Wall Press for a gifted copy.