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We read to go places.
The Man-Eater of Tambuti took me to South Africa, a place that I have never been but often muse about. What I liked about the book most was the passive weaving of setting into these small stories. Along with the man-eating lion, it is setting that connects these stories. When I say ‘passive weaving’ I mean that rather than explain things generally, Bussey’s descriptions include native flora and fauna. The characters are not eating cows when they sit down at the barbecue to have steaks. They are grilling eland antelope. The same is true about use of local South African dialect. They aren’t driving a pickup truck through the ‘bushveld’. They are driving a bakkie. The animals aren’t just animals. There animals or animals in the big 5.
Don’t poach animals in the big 5. Or else.
The author also succeeds in taking characteristically unlikable characters and making you root for them. In one story you meet a poacher who makes a living illegally hunting on national park lands. I didn’t think I’d empathize with his life of criminality. Then I found out he had seventeen kids to feed. And all he knew how to do, like his father before him, was hunt. That father is no longer around, but he seems to be omnipotent in everything the poacher does. How relatable.
Bussey’s book of short stories, independently published in July 2025, serves as an excellent example of the importance of reading about other cultures to expand your own mind.
Nobody tells a tale like a local. Read it here
Recommended Transient Visitors Stories by Dave if you liked this self-published book:
A poem I wrote that I thought synced with the stories:
David O’Boyle is a
Self-published Author
Lawyer
Mooncalf
Finboy
Friend from Other Flower Pot
Transient Visitor
Earthling
Pro-Pluto
Maybe someday a Martian
Lover of Giants and Leprechauns and elves
ambassador to mummies and vampires.
David’s works are available in the shop!