Rough Silk is an autobiography of an incredible single Dad raising his daughter amidst a myriad of problems in Kenya.
The book title is an antithesis of itself as silk is supposed to be soft.
This is a story of a full life that encompasses joy and pain.
The book starts in Pre-colonial Kenya in the 50s when the author's Dad is born and loses his own mother to childbirth, The book travels to Nairobi in the 80s all the way to the 90s to the 2000s and so it's a very wide scope and the author weaves into emotive subjects like;
Child birth and the mortality rates for women
Broken marriages
Child abandonment
Custody issues
Domestic Violence
Civil war and refugees
Privilege
Single parenthood
Menstrual periods
Access to basic needs for children
Irresponsible social behavior
The HIV pandemic of the 90s in Kenya and the orphans it left it in its wake
Terminal diseases
Medical tourism
A page turner that sold out on its debut and is described as a new genre of autobiography for its authenticity and rawness.
Rough Silk is one of few memoirs of an ordinary man, amongst piles of memoirs of celebrities,and the relatability has given it a firm space among its peers because its the story of the ordinary given by the ordinary to the ordinary.