title: The Girl Who Married a Lion: and Other Tales from Africa
author:  Alexander McCall Smith 
description: Straying from the safety net of a bestselling series (<i>The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency</i>, etc.), Smith tells 40 traditional African folk tales with his by now signature humor, simplicity and reverence for African culture. With an introductory letter from No. 1 Lady Detective Mma Ramotswe as a preface, he sets the literary stage for a nostalgic stroll down his own personal memory lane. Born and raised in what is now Zimbabwe, Smith began collecting these stories as a child and combines them with several he gleaned from a friend who interviewed natives of Botswana. Many of the stories parallel classic Western tales, from Aesop to Mother Goose. The ubiquitous wolf-in-sheep's-clothing fable becomes a parable about a girl who unwittingly marries a lion. Other stories deal with familiar themes ranging from ingratitude (in "Head Tree," a man cured of a tree growing out of his head does not pay the charm woman her due) to vanity (in "Greater Than Lion," a hare outwits a conceited and boastful lion). However, many are uniquely African, such as the stories that explain why the elephant and hyena live far from people or how baboons became so lazy. These are pithy, engaging tales, as habit-forming as peanuts. <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  **T H E S U N D A Y P H I L O S O P H Y C L U B**
  
  
  E
  
  
  
  
  
  **B O O K S B Y A L E X A N D E R M C C A L L S M I T H**
  
  
  The Girl Who Married a Lion
  
  
  and Other Tales from Africa
  
  
  **I N T H E N O . 1 L A D I E S ’ D E T E C T I V E A G E N C Y S E R I E S**
  
  
  The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
  
  
  Tears of the Giraffe
  
  
  Morality for Beautiful Girls
  
  
  The Kalahari Typing School for Men
  
  
  The Full Cupboard of Life
  
  
  
  
  
  **T H E S U N D A Y**
  
  
  **P H I L O S O P H Y C L U B**
  
  
  E
  
  
  **A l e x a n d e r M c C a l l S m i t h** p a n t h e o n b o o k s
  
  
  n e w y o r k
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2004 by Alexander McCall Smith
  
  
  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
  Conventions. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of
  Random House, Inc., New York. Published simultaneously in Canada by Alfred A.
  Knopf, Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
  Originally published in Great Britain by Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn, Ltd.,
  Edinburgh,