Lectures from the Allen Room & Wertheim Study: The Lunatic Line: the Story of the train Karen Blixen took from Mombasa to Nairobi

In 1896, the British undertook to build a 660-mile railroad through a vast trackless wilderness from the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa to the shores of Lake Victoria.  The project, officially known as the Uganda Railway, but rechristened the Lunatic Line, took five years and cost 5 million British pounds.  The men who built it were largely workers imported from the Indian subcontinent and supervised by British officers, many of whom made up their engineering solutions on the spot.  The story of why and how the Lunatic Line came to be involves Britain’s desire to control the Suez Canal, digging Rhinoceroses, man-eating lions, growing coffee, and the evils of colonialism.

Annamaria Alfieri ,a writer in residencein the Library's Frederick Lewis Allen Room, is the author of Strange Gods set in the burgeoning British East African town of Nairobi in 1911.  Described as Out of Africa meets Agatha Christie, it captures the beauty and the danger of the African wild and the complexities of imposing a culture on a foreign land.  Her previous historical mysteries, which are all set in South America, have garnered critical acclaim.  The Christian Science Monitor chose her Blood Tango as one of ten must-read thrillers.  Of her Invisible Country, Kirkus Reviews said, “Alfieri has written an antiwar mystery that compares with the notable novels of Charles Todd.”  The Washington Post said of her debut novel, “As both history and mystery, City of Silver glitters.”

Writing as Patricia King, she is the author of the short story “Baggage Claim,” in the anthology Queens Noir.  Her five books on business subjects include Never Work for a Jerk, which was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show.  She lives in New York City and is Vice-President of the Board of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival and a past president of the New York Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.

“Alfieri aims for the audience who loved Out of Africa, with heartbreaking romance married to a complex mystery.” - Kirkus