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Cover of The Girl Who Married a Lion by Alexander McCall Smith

The Girl Who Married a Lion

  • 240 pages · about 4 hours
  • First published 2004
  • 15 editions

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1 About this book

Gathered here is a beguiling selection of folktales from Zimbabwe and Botswana as retold by the best-selling author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. This treasury contains most of the stories previously collected in Children of Wax and seven new tales from the Setswana-speaking people of Botswana.

A girl discovers that her young husband might actually be a lion in disguise, but not before they have two sons who might actually be cubs . . . When a child made of wax follows his curiosity outside into the heat of daylight and melts, his siblings shape him into a bird with feathers made of leaves that enable him to fly into the light . . .

Talking hyenas, milk-giving birds, clever cannibals who nonetheless get their comeuppance, and mysterious forces that reside in the landscape--these wonderful fables bring us the wealth, the variety, and the particular magic of traditional African lore.

  • Wildlife
  • Folklore
  • Tales

2 About Alexander McCall Smith

Born 1948

Sir Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith (born 24 August 1948) is a Rhodesian/Zimbabwean-Scottish legal scholar and author of fiction. He was born and raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and was formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an expert on medical law and bioethics and served on related British and international committees.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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