When Pius Fernandes, a retired schoolteacher living in modern day Dar es Salaam, discovers a diary of a British colonial administrator from 1913, he is drawn into a provocative account of the Asian community of East Africa, and the liaisons, feelings and secrets of its people, over the course of a century.

Part generational history, part detective story, part social chronicle, M.G. Vassanji's award-winning novel magnificently conjures setting and period as it explores notions of identity and exile.

"...a fascinating tale" - * Sunday Herald *

"M.G.Vassanji is an acclaimed author and The Book of Secrets is an epic novel that ought to knock your socks off. Only it doesn't.. It is not all hard work, though. The descriptions of African life are often wonderful... Any one of the book's many strands would have provided sufficient meat for a novel on its own." - * The Times *