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About 275 words

Tears of the Giraffe, by Cristina Díaz Díez (Intermedio 1, 2008-09)

Tears of the Giraffe was written by Alexander McCall Smith, who knows Africa because he was born in Zimbabwe. The main characters are Mma. Ramotswe, the only lady private detective in Gaborone, and Mr. JLB Matekoni, the owner of a garage in Gaborone too. Other important characters in the story are Mma. Makutsi, the secretary of Mma. Ramotswe, and Florence Peko, the bad tempered maid of Mr. JLB Matekoni.

The story is located in Botswana, a beautiful country in Africa, and the story is about this country and the different lifestyles of its people. It begins when Mr. JLB Matekoni asks Mma. Ramotswe to marry him, and to his great surprise she accepts. So Mma. Ramotswe is engaged to marry Mr. JLB Matekoni, a very good man. He is so good that he adopts two orphan children, and also because he tolerates the bad manners of his maid, Florence Peko. Also, Mma. Ramotswe has to solve the case of a missing boy. There's another case of a man who is very worried because he thinks that his wife is seeing another man, and this case will be solved by Mma. Makutsi.

It's difficult to say which is my favourite passage, but the end is very beautiful, when Mma. Ramotswe says to the child that a giraffe gives its tears because a giraffe has nothing else to give. Everybody should read this book and learn the way of life of Mma. Ramotswe and her friends. They live without luxuries but they are happy and they try to help other people to be happy.

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