A Change in Altitude

The Story Behind A Change In Altitude

I lived in Kenya from 1975 to 1978 and worked as a deputy editor for an African magazine called Viva. I was often asked to write articles about various African people and had an opportunity to travel far and wide. I did actually climb Mt. Kenya and make it to the top, but as in all novels, the facts of my stay in Kenya formed only the barest skeleton on which to hang a story. I did have a lovely cottage in Karen, went to a Masai ceremony similar to the one described in the book, and often traveled to African family shambas for meals. I knew the expatriate community reasonably well. None of the characters in the book is based on anyone I ever knew -- particularly Margaret. I have not been back to Kenya since 1978. In the beginning, I had very young children and a trip was out of the question. Later, I began to discover that the country was seldom a very safe place to visit. I remember that several years ago, I got out a Fodor's to read about present-day Kenya: I believe the first sentence was: "Of all the countries we have ever reported on, Kenya is the most lawless." The situation is somewhat better today, but there is still a great deal of unrest. That said, I would love to return to the country of Luo and Kikuyu, of the tea plantations that shimmered in the distance, and of the island of Lamu, an exquisite, almost mystical, place of dreams. I still remember the colors vividly, and I have fond feelings for the wonderful people I met there. In 1978, I returned to this country just a couple of months before Jomo Kenyatta died -- thus ending the period of greatest stability in a country that was once thought to be the safest in Africa.

As for climbing Mt. Kenya, it was the most arduous physical endeavor of my entire life. Though the cast of characters was unlike those I have in the novel, the physical attributes of the mountain are described as I best remember them. The scree and the glacier were brutal, and I reached the top in a blizzard. I couldn't see a thing except tiny bits of white coming at me. I'm told that the glacier can no longer be safely crossed, and that in a very few years, there will be no ice at all on the mountain. Climate change.

A Change in Altitude is about Kenya, but it is also about a marriage and what can happen to that marriage as a result of a single catastrophic moment. It's a theme I often explore. I hope you enjoy the book.

Anita

A Change In Altitude Excerpt

When Patrick asked Margaret if she wanted to go to Kenya with him, she said yes with enthusiasm.  Her job at the alternative paper wasn't progressing, and she was tired of photographing congressional meetings and folksingers in Cambridge coffeehouses.  Patrick had attached himself to Nairobi Hospital, which he could use as a resource for as long as he wanted in exchange for conducting free clinics around the country when asked to do so.

Margaret and Patrick were hastily wed in a backyard in Cambridge.  Margaret wore a long white cotton dress and wound her hair into a French twist.  After the ceremony, they and their guests drank champagne on plastic deck chairs and an ornate sofa brought outside for the occasion.  Patrick and Margaret sat in the sofa's plush center, fending off witty barbs and occasionally gazing at the stars.

At a good-bye dinner at her parents' house the night before Patrick and she were to fly out of Logan to Nairobi, Margaret couldn't imagine how she  could go a year without seeing either them or her twelve-year-old brother, Timmy, born sixteen years after Margaret - a happy accident, her mother had explained.  She pleaded with them to come visit her in Africa.  No one in the family had ever used the word love before,  though the connection among them was fierce.

On the plane, Margaret was mildly homesick.  During the flight across the alien continent, the sun rising, her face pressed to the window, her breath fogging her vision, Patrick held her hand.  If he was apprehensive, he didn't say so.

From the plane, she saw all the places she had read about in preparation for the trip: the Nile River, long and brown; Lake Turkana, once Lake Rudolf; the Rift Valley, vast and barren and unearthly; and then suddenly the Ngong Hills and the plateau on which Nairobi had been settled.  In the distance, Margaret could see, rising above the clouds, Mount Kenya, and even, to the south, Mount Kilimanjaro.  Before the plane set d own, Patrick presented her with a silver ring, a small diamond at its center, something he hadn't been able to manage before the wedding.  They landed on Margaret's birthday.

Copyright (c) Anita Shreve