Zanzibar today, and as it was 40 years ago, seen through the eyes of two women who meet there. Francesca has come hoping for new experience after the break up of an affair, Carla to revive memories of a long past and never spoken of love. Both find what they are seeking, and become firm friends in the process. 256pp, UK. HEADLINE.

When two Zanzibari exiles meet in a small English seaside town, there begins the unravelling of a story begun long ago, a story of the haphazard displacement of people, of love and betrayal and above all a story of possession. 245pp, UK. BLOOMSBURY.

Now in paperback. Early one morning in 1899, in a small town along the coast from Mombasa, Hassanali sets out for the mosque. But that morning he never gets there, for out of the desert stumbles an Englishman, Martin Pearce - writer, traveller and Orientalist - who collapses at his feet. When he visits Hassanali to thank him for his rescue, he meets his sister Rehana and is smitten. In this crumbling town, with Empire on the brink of a new century, a passionate love affair begins that brings two cultures together and that will reverberate through three generations and across continents, carrying its consequences to Zanzibar in the early 1950s, a country struggling with its complicated legacy of slavery and foreign rule and on the brink of revolution. 272pp, UK. BLOOMSBURY.

The story of a young man's coming of age against a backdrop of a mythical Africa, Biblical and Koranic traditions, and growing corruption. Shortlisted for the 1994 Booker Prize. 247pp, UK. BLOOMSBURY.

Now in trade paperback. A web of intrigue thriller. A marine biologist working on coral reef protection in Zanzibar meets a beautiful American embassy worker and ends up involved in a terrorist conspiracy. 389pp. FABER, 0571205178

Fable of a Zanzibari man, Kombo, determined to lead a moral life. Illus, 92pp, ZANZIBAR. GOOD LUCK PUBLISHERS.

For children and the general reader these are colourful, lively stories which can be read for pleasure. For those with an interest in anthropology, they preserve traditional tales which encapsulate social and moral values which can be analysed and interpreted in the light of modem anthropological approaches. Reprint of an edition first published in 1908, spellings and names have been updated. 160pp, illus, ZANZIBAR. GALLERY PUBLICATIONS.