Noah’s Mountain is a coming-of-age story, of a young mountain porter, set against the picturesque backdrop of Kilimanjaro. Noah’s ambition is to work as a porter on the mountain to finance his schooling supported by family and a diverse group of friends including an eccentric Englishman, a pastor with a past and his best friend Grace. To achieve his dream of a better life Noah and his friends face hardships, betrayal, violence and even death.
Synopsis
Noah, the son of subsistence farmers, is growing up in the shadow of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. His village, Marangu, is the gateway to the highest mountain in Africa. The story opens in 1995 and follows Noah over four years as he copes with hardships and disappointment set against the dramatic vistas of the mountain from dusty hot plains at the foot of the mountain reaching up through tropical rainforest to almost arctic conditions at Uhru Peak.
Noah’s fifteenth birthday approaches and his parents are forced, through necessity, to end his schooling and set him to work on the land. Noah begs to be allowed to continue his education and to earn school fees by working as a Kilimanjaro porter.
His best friend is the elegant and ambitious Grace, whose family are openly hostile to her interest in Noah. Eventually, Noah confronts Grace’s parents as she is dramatically taken away from Marangu to live with relatives in the nearby town.
Noah is guided in the village by the pragmatic James, a former Kenyan safari operator turned evangelical pastor. Whilst working on the mountain Noah is protected by the formidable Israeli, whoes eventual dramatic deparure from the Mountain leaves Noah both scared and jobless.
Grace, whom he has not seen for almost a year attends a village funeral; a difficult meeting develops but one that reaffirms their special friendship.
Erratic attendance at school and failure in his exams leads to crushing disappointment but this is offset by a chance meeting with William, a mysterious and eccentric Englishman who befriends Noah and acts as a catalyst in Noah’s quest for a better life. Together they scrape a living on the peripheries of tourism. This results in Noah traveling to the town of Arusha for a day to coerce overdue commission from a reluctant Tanzanite dealer and to visit Grace who now works in Arusha.
Two British backpackers looking to climb Kilimanjaro arrange for Noah to lead a trek. The climb is a great success and the backpackers agree to sponsor Noah, paying fees at tourism college. Noah returns to William’s office triumphant and eager to share his good fortune. However, he is dismayed to discover his friend has suddenly and without warning returned to England.
With profits from the climb, college fees paid and Grace waiting for his arrival in the tourist town of Arusha, we leave Noah in the process of moving from his village to the city. The sweetness of his success is tempered by the bitterness he feels towards Kilimanjaro at the death of a friend, the personal hardships he has endured on the mountain and William who was forced to abandoned Tanzania and as yet has not bothered to contact Noah.
Chapter 1 Chapter 2
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