Waiting for an Angel

Wow! I really liked this book, and usually I'm not a big fan of novels jumping around in time but this one was a lot easier to follow than Ancestor Stones. I actually appreciated the jumping around by the second half of the book because anything that was mentioned I felt like I knew because of the past history that was already provided.
I thought it was nice to see that for once the guard (or any kind of authority figure for that matter) was willing to help Lomba, but once he started his writing he had to do so secretly and half of the time didn't even know the right date...that aspect of prison is oddly what I found to be the most terrifying. Lomba seems to be completely isolated and detached from the rest of the world, which is why its so hard to read about him in prison within the first portion of the book. The further Waiting for An Angel develops the more I keep wishing for a different outcome than the one I already know.
One part that I found to be especially interesting was during the fortune teller scene. It was strange that the fortune teller knew that prison was in his future, but when asked about death the fortune teller only replies with "A wise man is always ready for death. Assume it will come tomorrow, or in the next minute." Parts of the book like this made me feel like Habila provided all around great life lessons and advice through his work, but when looking at the big picture I realize that what made this book feel like such a personal read was because it deals with the social issues of the time by exploring the life of one individual. I like that the novel was trying to accomplish too much, focusing on just a single person's experience made me understand the gravity of the situation a little better.