Garden of the Lost and Abandoned

October 16, 2017
This compassionate portrait of Gladys Kalibbala, a Ugandan journalist in the capital city of Kampala, presents an extended look at a woman wired for altruism and forgiveness. Yu, a debut author and documentary filmmaker, covers four years of Kalibbala’s work profiling homeless children in “Lost and Abandoned,” her Sunday column for a national newspaper. The stories are heart-wrenching, variously involving AIDS, addiction, abuse, and grinding poverty. Kalibbala emerges as a generous soul and fierce advocate, reconnecting the children with family members, getting them into schools, and even setting up a small farm outside the city to raise funds and provide some children with a place to stay. Her personality and implacable determination mark every anecdote, most of which radiate an essential optimism even when the ending is not unqualifiedly happy. This is deeply researched personal journalism, but the focus is so close that a broader context—whether of Uganda’s history, the African AIDS crisis, or the struggles of developing countries in general—rarely comes through. Yu’s intense close-up on her charismatic heroine results in an inspirational narrative but neglects that story’s dense, complicated background. Agent: Jin Auh, Wylie Agency.

October 15, 2017
An Academy Award-winning filmmaker makes her literary debut with the stunning account of Gladys Kalibbala, who has devoted herself to rescuing lost children in Uganda. Yu, who met her subject while working on a documentary about population issues and spent some time over the past few years shadowing her, provides a richly detailed account of this remarkable woman. Kalibbala has a feature column in the Kampala newspaper New Vision, in which she tries to reunite lost and/or abandoned children with their families--or to place the youngsters in settings where they will have a chance. The author delivers a moving collection of cases that have confronted Kalibbala, some of which have produced remarkable success and others, not so much. All of the stories have an immediacy because Yu has included generous amounts of dialogue and local color, all indicating the author's observational skills and attention to details. Kalibbala emerges as a magnetic personality with a huge heart and boundless spirit, a strong faith in human beings (a faith that her clients sometimes betray), and a tongue she sometimes wields like an edged blade against those who lie to her. Many of the cases are enormously complex--none more so than the one that consumes seven chapters, the story of a boy whose identity keeps unfolding with increasing complexity as the narrative continues. (Yu gives us a break after a few chapters of his story and then returns to him.) There are also some wrenching accounts of betrayal, especially the case of a boy Kalibbala rescued who then stole from her--as did a family member. Wrenching, too, is the case of the autistic boy for whom Kalibbala struggles continually to find the right setting, "a place that could provide both freedom and constant supervision." An eloquent affirmation of the vast capacity of the human heart.

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November 15, 2017

A single mom without a college degree boldly walks into a newspaper office, asks for a job as a reporter, and gets it. This is the story of that woman: Gladys Kalibbaba, a successful human-interest reporter for the New Vision newspaper in Uganda. Her column, Lost and Abandoned, focuses on adrift children in Uganda's urban centers, with the goal of reuniting them with their parents. Impatient for happy endings, Kalibbaba frequently takes matters into her own hands and finds a home and schooling for children until their families can be located. Academy Award-winning director Yu first profiled Kalibbaba in the documentary Misconception (2014). In her first book, Yu shares the stories of over a dozen children rescued by Kalibbaba and her network of supporters. She then connects these stories to larger societal issues such as women's rights, family planning, health care, education, and job training. VERDICT This heartfelt book should be on a list of the best uplifting true stories; readers looking for inspiring narrative nonfiction or insight into life in other countries and cultures will thoroughly enjoy.--Beth Dalton, Littleton, CO

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