by Tim Bascom

At the age of three, in 1964, Tim Bascom is thrust into a world of eucalyptus trees and stampeding baboons when his family moves from the Midwest to Ethiopia. Unflinchingly observant, young Tim reveals his missionary parents' struggles in a sometimes hostile country. Sent reluctantly to boarding school in the capital, Bascom finds that beyond the gates enclosing that peculiar, isolated world, conflict roils Ethiopian society; as he grows older, the secret riot drills at school create in him a mounting unease. While visiting his parents' home, where another missionary family has fled after an attack by rampaging students, Tim witnesses the disintegration of his family's African idyll as Hailie Selassie's empire begins to crumble. Like Alexandra Fuller's Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Chameleon Days chronicles social upheaval through the keen yet naive eyes of a child. Bascom offers readers a fascinating glimpse of missionary life, much as Barbara Kingsolver did in The Poisonwood Bible.