- Summary
- "A woman's quest for a new life in Africa in the wake of World War II -- and a heroic career that hid a secret past. Over the span of fifty years, Dr. Anne Spoerry, French by birth, treated hundreds of thousands of individuals across rural Kenya. A member of the renowned Flying Doctors Service, Spoerry earned the cherished nickname "Mama Daktari"--"Mother Doctor"--the people of Kenya. Yet few knew what drove her from post-World War II Europe to Africa. Now, in the first comprehensive story of her life, her revered selflessness gives way to a past marked by rebellion and submission, during which she earned another nickname--this one sinister working as a "doctor" in a Nazi concentration camp. In Full Flight explores the question of whether it is possible to rewrite one's troubled past simply by doing good in the present. Informed by Spoerry's own journals, a trove of previously untapped files, and numerous interviews with those who knew her in Europe or Africa, John Heminway takes readers on a remarkable journey through Africa and into a dramatic life punctuated by both courage and weakness and driven by a powerful need to atone"-- Provided by publisher.
"The revelatory account of a woman's quest for a new life in Africa in the wake of World War II--a heroic career that hid a dark wartime past"-- Provided by publisher.
A member of the renowned Flying Doctors Service, Anne Spoerry earned the cherished nickname "Mama Daktari"--"Mother Doctor"--the people of Kenya. Yet few knew that at one time she worked as a "doctor" in a Nazi concentration camp. Here, Hemingway explores the question of whether it is possible to rewrite one's troubled past simply by doing good in the present. Spoerry's life was punctuated by both courage and weakness and driven by a powerful need to atone.
- Format
- Book
- Author/Creator
- Heminway, John Hylan, 1944- author.
- Published
- New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2018
©2018
- Locale
- Africa
- Edition
- First edition
- Contents
-
Prologue: The end
That's all I'll say
If
La Coquille
We are finished
A Pukka place
The emergency
The piper
Miss Mary
L'enfer des femmes
Begin the beguine
Dr. Claude
No. 40 flat heels
Rabble of Communist fomenters
The scorecard
The wrong side of the binoculars
I know what I'm doing
I'll be back
Hiding in full view
In memoriam, Africa.
- Notes
-
Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-314).
Prologue: The end -- That's all I'll say -- If -- La Coquille -- We are finished -- A Pukka place -- The emergency -- The piper -- Miss Mary -- L'enfer des femmes -- Begin the beguine -- Dr. Claude -- No. 40 flat heels -- Rabble of Communist fomenters -- The scorecard -- The wrong side of the binoculars -- I know what I'm doing -- I'll be back -- Hiding in full view -- In memoriam, Africa.
