by Isak Dinesen

In 1913 Karen Dinesen left her home in Denmark and boarded a steamer to East Africa, where she would marry her second cousin, Bror Blixen, and embark on a new life. She and Bror settled among the European aristocracy in the Protectorate of British East Africa and ran a coffee plantation while exploring the vast wilderness around them. Soon after establishing this life, however, Karen found her new land embroiled in World War I, her coffee business struggling, and her marriage to Bror a failure (they divorced in 1922). When at last she was forced to sell the farm and leave Africa in 1931, she brought with her the memories of her time there—of the Somalis, Indians, and Gikuyu (also known as Kikuyu) with whom she lived and worked; of her Maasai neighbors; of the dignitaries and aristocratic settlers she rubbed shoulders with...