Baking Cakes in Kigali with Gaile Parkin

Born and raised in Zambia, Gaile Parkin has lived and worked in many African countries. Her first job was in a Soweto still simmering from the violent student uprisings. More recently she worked in Rwanda, training people to fill the human resources vacuum created by the genocide and counselling women and girls who had survived it. Gaile holds degrees in English literature, linguistics, education, psychology, gender and international development. Baking Cakes in Kigali, her first novel, was published in the UK by Atlantic Press in January 2009 and went on to sell in fifteen other territories. – Written by Christine Green, Gaile Parkin’s agent.

This Book Club Live event is the second to take place for Madras Café Unlocked. Baking Cakes in Kigali sits within the exhibition and its theme, Food for Peace and Justice. Food in the novel plays the vital role of bringing people together; it helps to prompt conversations, relationships and reconciliation. Baking Cakes in Kigali captures the difficult realities of life in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali whilst showing that even in the midst of tragedy there are still reasons to celebrate.