The idea for Masha Hamilton's new novel, The Camel Bookmobile (HarperCollins), came from a source close to home: her daughter. Hamilton was driving her three children to the library when her daughter told her about a camel bookmobile she had heard of in Africa that once had a strict edict. If anyone in a settlement failed to return a book, the mobile library would not go back there. The anecdote struck a chord with Hamilton. "There was something about the camel library and that rule," she said. "I started to feel the story." Within minutes Hamilton had outlined the basic premise of the novel. She spent the next three years writing The Camel Bookmobile, which is now an April Book Sense Pick.
When the book was in its final editing stages, Hamilton and her daughter journeyed to Kenya to visit the camel library that provided the initial inspiration. "I didn't go right away because I'm a reporter, and I didn't want the journalism aspect to kick in," said Hamilton, who had previously been to the Ivory Coast and South Africa. The Camel Bookmobile is told through multiple viewpoints, and each of the main characters is changed in some way by the roving library. "I really wanted to know their stories," Hamilton said, "and have them achieve fullness and resonance before I went to see the actual camel library."
Hamilton spent several days traveling in northeastern Kenya, near the country's border with Somalia, going on outings with the camel library. "It was moving for me to see the parallels between the created world and the real one," she said. "When I saw the thorn fence and the way the camels walk through the bush, it was just as I had envisioned it."
At the time Hamilton visited Kenya, the country was suffering through its third year of drought. In a place where famine and poverty are chronic conditions, she noted, books are a rare and valued commodity. She saw that children were mesmerized by the camel library's offerings, and several young men and women indicated that the library had allowed them to prepare for exams they needed to take in order to continue their education. "I cannot say how inspiring it was to watch the reaction to the books," Hamilton added.
In February, she launched a drive to collect books for the camel library, an idea she devised with author M.J. Rose. Hamilton lauded "the generosity of spirit" that has compelled more than 150 authors, among them Amy Tan, Chris Bohjalian and Maeve Binchy, to each donate a minimum of five of their favorite books. Hamilton is looking to get bookstores, libraries and other businesses and organizations involved in the Camel Book Drive as well.
Books for children and adults (in English, Swahili and Somali) are needed in a wide array of categories, including science, math, history and biography, along with dictionaries, language books and English primers. "Invariably patrons would tell me their favorites were the story books--children's, young adult and even adult fiction," said Hamilton, "but many of them were taking the nonfiction books for study reasons." She also noted that titles by Kenyan and Somali writers are great choices that patrons find inspiring.
Along with promoting the novel in the coming months, Hamilton hopes to raise awareness for the camel library. "There are two strands here for me. There is the real camel library," she said, "and then there is the novel." The Camel Bookmobile is the story of an American librarian who travels to Africa to work with a relief organization that uses camels to bring books to forgotten villages and what transpires when the bookmobile causes a feud among the villagers it aims to help. Hamilton is also the author of two previous novels, Staircase of a Thousand Steps and The Distance Between Us.
Hamilton is in the midst of an author events tour that will include the Arizona Book Festival in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 14, the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on April 20 and the New Jersey Library Association Conference in Long Branch, N.J., on April 24.
At bookstore signings, she plans to encourage attendees to purchase a copy of a favored book and donate it to the camel library--and to inscribe it with a personal message. While in Kenya, said Hamilton, the head librarian "made a point of telling me that patrons especially love it when there is a note written in the book. It really makes them feel connected to the book and to people and places they can just barely imagine."--Shannon McKenna