After Kilimanjaro: A Novel

by Gayle Woodson

Dr. Sarah Whitaker has always been an obedient overachiever, but she is burned out. Training to be a surgeon is stressful. So when her fiancé, David, offers a solution—take a break year at a hospital in Africa and climb Mount Kilimanjaro together—she jumps on board. When he backs out, she embarks on the adventure alone.



Sarah quickly falls in love with Tanzania, a land of gentle people, exotic wildlife, and stunning natural beauty, from the sands of Zanzibar to the peaks of Kilimanjaro. She also develops great respect for new Tanzanian friends: strong African women who strive to serve an overwhelming need for health care. Shocked by the high rate of maternal mortality and the scourge of female genital mutilation in the country, Sarah begins to speak out against FGM and develops an experimental program to train tribal birth attendants in a remote mountain village. Conditions are primitive there, and life is fragile. The separation takes its toll on her relationship with David, and she fights against feelings for another man. As the months pass, one thing becomes clear: if Sarah survives this year, her life will never be the same again.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Africa, Medical, Contemporary

353 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 8, 2019

About the author

Gayle Woodson is a semi-retired surgeons who has done medical outreach around the world. She loves to tell stories of the wonderful people she has gotten to know.
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Reviews

[Lyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t believe I stayed up until 02:30 to finish this book.
It is absolutely phenomenal! I love reading WWII historical novels and “After Kilimanjaro” is one with a different, refreshing twist and a more contemporary subject.

Sarah is a talented, experienced, young surgeon who has lived a mostly sheltered life. First with her family and then ‘steady’ with the same guy since High School. By “accident”, Sarah embarks on a journey of self-discovery, to Tanzania. Here she finds conditions are primitive and life is fragile. Sarah encounters medical problems that are not as common in the developed world. High mortality for both mothers and infants, poor prenatal care, female genital mutilations, HIV, malaria, sleeping sickness, and malnutrition, to name a few. These threaten to overwhelm the country’s medical structures.

I was very interested to read about Sarah’s experiences and travels in Africa. Throw in some friendly fictional characters and an awesome Dutch doctor and you have this great story as written by Gayle Woodson.

I can’t help but think about the organization “Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières”. These Doctors, medical staff and others accomplish miracles for those under privileged people around the world. They are truly inspiring!

[Patty Simpson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is an ok romance novel, but I read it because it was set in Tanzania - a country I've visited and loved, and it promised to discuss a trek up Kilimanjaro. Unfortunately, the book as a whole is just kind of ridiculous. Written by a surgeon, the operating room medical stuff was likely accurate and it helped a lot - but the basic premises were really flawed. The way the surgeon got her position at the maternal clinic is eye-rollingly impossible. YOu don't get a 1-year research position without a research proposal.

Here's a spoiler, so stop reading if you don't want to see it (it's not a huge part of the book, though): she just has to present one class on the evils of female genital mutilation, and all the traditional women listening agree to stop doing it. More eye rolls.

Anyway, the book was also terribly edited, with garbled grammar and missing words all the way through. Plus, no one caught that the author mentioned not once, but twice, the toucans flying around. Toucans do not live in Africa.

Anyway, as a silly romance it's fine, but it's absolutely not anything more than that.

[Ashleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This book was absolutely phenomenal! It was a beautifully crafted journey of a women traveling to the other side of the world where she rediscovered who she was, what she wanted to do and even fell in love. I learned so much while reading this book. It was truly an inspiring read. Thank you @booksparks #booksharks for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I truly don't think anything I put on a review would do this novel justice. I really would suggest picking a copy up

We meet Sarah a doctor, a surgeon to be excat on an airplane to Africa saving a passenger from an allergic reaction to fish. While in Tanzania, Africa, Sarah is part of the obstetric ward, her project is to better educate the tribal birth attendees to hopefully be able to tell when a pregnancy is in danger so they can get proper medical attention instead of home birth. The goal is to help lower the three major causes of maternal deaths that are on the rise. Sarah was quick to make many friendships in Africa, where she would go on many adventures such as local attractions and even a Safari. Not all was fun while she was there she saw many deaths, many female genital mutilations, a baby also born with deformities dies in her arms. While in Africa her fiancee who was suspose to come along to study but things fell through came to visit and they are able to climb Kilimanjaro together. Sarah had some major accomplishments but also got very ill and was brought back to the US while she healed. Sarah was such a strong confident women that evolved even more on this African study program questioning her romantic decisions and really digging deep to discoverer what she really wanted to do with her life. I really believe that she came out a truly better person and on a better path than if she hasn't gone to Africa and just fell into the dance routine with the same man she had been on!

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

After Kilimanjaro is the story of a young America surgeon, Sarah, who has a research grant to spend a year in Tanzania working with women’s health programs. She leaves her long-term boyfriend to fly halfway across the world to live and work with people she’s never met, delivering babies, which was not exactly her plan. But she ends up learning so much, about the people in Tanzania, other doctors, and of course, herself.

I really enjoyed the medical aspects of this book, the outreach work she ended up doing, and the specific medical cases that the author touched on. For me, that was the star of the show. The relationship drama, love story type story line seemed forced to me and unnecessary. I totally understand why the author would choose to include it, it’s something that interests a lot of readers and it made things a little more “juicy” but I was much more interested in the rest of Sarah’s experience in Africa.

Overall this was a good book and I really enjoyed learning more about Tanzania, and the challenges of women’s health programs in places like this. There’s so much more to learn and although this was fictional, people like Sarah are very inspiring. I know the author, a surgeon herself, must have drew from her own experiences to help with this story.

[Charmaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started out decent, that’s the reason for the 2 stars. After awhile I felt the plot was dragging out longer than it needed to. The so called romance between the main character and another doctor were boring and without spark. After reading 3/4 of the book, I got so frustrated with the boring storyline and the consistent grammatical errors. I had to reread sentences to make sense of them. Her editor should be fired!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know exactly how I heard abut this book and how it ended up on my to read list, but I’m glad it did. Was it the best written book? No. Did it drag on towards the end? Yes. A little cheesy? Sure. Needing some stronger proofreading and editing? Without a doubt. But overall this was a fun, light, easy read that made me want to pick it up each day. And for reasons I can’t explain, I am drawn to books set in Africa so this one was a thumbs up from me.

[hellobookstash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite reads of the year! The descriptions made me feel like I was in Africa. I felt for Sarah as she goes through her relationship problems. Pieter had me laughing out loud many different times! If you love medical shows like Grey's Anatomy, you are going to love this!

Thank you Booksparks and Gayle Woodson for an early copy of this book.

[Leonard Lane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a good, no, a great read. Doctor Gayle Woodson's prose is smooth, insightful, and realistic. The story is much more than a romance. It's a travelog, medical treatise, and human drama that is cleverly woven around the story of young love. I won't give away any of the plot, but will urge you to read it. Soon!

[Michele Zito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story. Excellent description of life , customs and the beautiful scenery of Africa. The medical side of this book was also very well written given that the author herself is a surgeon.
Really enjoyed this novel.
Michele Zito

[Sara Stamey]

I love novels that take me armchair traveling, and after reading this novel with its wonderfully vivid descriptions of such attractions as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and going on photo safari to see an amazing variety of wildlife, I have added Tanzania to my must-visit travel list. But Woodson takes us deeper than the obvious tourist draws to experience life in rural villages where health care is often precarious and women still suffer disability from the tradition of female genital mutilation.

Into this setting, naïve young American surgeon Sarah Whitaker arrives with a year-long grant to study women’s health and hopefully establish a trial program to train village midwives in lifesaving techniques. She also finds herself promoting education to end the abusive practice of genital mutilation.

Sarah finds the challenges almost overwhelming: Clinics with only rudimentary supplies and staff; long hours dealing with sometimes gruesome injuries and diseases; learning how to live in “village style” with few modern comforts; and waking up one morning with a deadly black mamba snake lying next to her, among other dangers. Perhaps the biggest challenge she faces is learning what is in her own heart and what she really wants out of life. The people she meets – including the staff members and villagers she’s teaching – are teaching her a lot about “heart” and strength in adversity. They also show her how to laugh and dance, as in a delightful scene when one of the clinic staff members, a tall young woman who grew up tribally, spontaneously jumps in among a visiting tribal dance group and shows she can leap as high as the male dancers.

The novel moves at a brisk pace through Sarah’s year in Tanzania, moving from fascinating details of clinic work and surgeries, to breaks for exploring, to episodes with her expanding circle of local friends. An emotional arc pulls the action along, as Sarah must decide whether to break her less-than-passionate engagement to a doctor back home and allow herself freedom to explore different options.

[Shanna Klutts · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book only because it satisfied two of my reading challenges for the year. I almost DNFed it, but it was too late in the month to do so.
Two stars because this was the author’s first attempt at a novel and over half of the reasons I hated this book has to do with editing. If it had not been her first book, she would have received half a star.
The action was actually pretty decent…it reminded me of ER but a Tanzania edition, remote location, Africa.
The author was brilliant when it came to things that she was comfortable with - having been a surgeon, she knew exactly how to describe all things medical. Where she hit a wall was the romance and relational side to the story. The dialogue was what I tell my students are “floating heads”. All dialogue and no action to connect it. You got confused at times with who was speaking. And it did not feel like it would reflect real life conversations. There were moments in the story where it seems like characters just appeared out of nowhere, and she never really introduced them…they just materialized as so and so and then went back into oblivion. Then she had conflicting timelines where it seems she forgot that characters already knew certain things when they didn’t or they didn’t know certain things when the reveal had already happened.
It was a disservice to the story, which in and of itself was compelling - an American surgeon headed to do a study in Africa on the mortality rate of infants and mothers, and seeing if teaching the midwives of remote villages basic pregnancy check-ups for possible health conditions along with prenatal care would decrease the mortality rate of infants and mothers. If that was all the book had been about, I would have bumped it up to three stars. But the dialogue, the forced romance, and the glaring editing mistakes made this really a half a star for me.

[Liz L · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this coming-of-age novel. It had an interesting setting (mostly rural Tanzania), and the medical and public health themes made it feel very different from other, similar coming-of-age and romance novels.

The descriptions of little things were probably my favorite part of the book. Small moments really flesh out the characters, like the guy who casually changes the cat from dry food to wet because he doesn't want to deal with the smell, even though the wet food is healthier (I hated him from that moment on, lol). I also liked that the major symbols (tanzanite, leopards) were clearly well thought-out and spaced throughout the story.

The main character was believably flawed. She's confident in her surgical skills, but she's still a sheltered young woman who behaves accordingly. I like that the focus became more about the outsider physicians and community members working together as time went on (and as the character came more into her own). Stories like this can very easily slide into objectification, othering, and savior tropes - I felt like part of this story was that movement from a more naive way of dealing with a culture different from the main character's into a more mature sort of cultural humility.

And really any story in which lay health advisors and qualitative research actually get this much positive attention from a surgeon definitely gets my seal of approval.

[Graeme Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

After Kilimanjaro is a richly layered novel that blends medical drama, romance, and cross cultural transformation into an emotionally compelling journey of self discovery. Gayle Woodson crafts a story that is as much about personal reckoning as it is about place, purpose, and courage.

Dr. Sarah Whitaker begins the novel as a driven overachiever on the brink of burnout. What starts as a temporary escape to Tanzania evolves into a life altering immersion in a world that challenges her professionally, morally, and emotionally. Woodson vividly captures the landscapes from the shores of Zanzibar to the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro while grounding the narrative in urgent healthcare realities, including maternal mortality and female genital mutilation.

What elevates the novel is its balance between intimate emotional conflict and broader humanitarian themes. Sarah’s advocacy work, particularly her efforts to train tribal birth attendants, brings authenticity and depth to the story. At the same time, her unraveling relationship with her fiancé and the emergence of unexpected romantic tension add personal stakes that keep the narrative deeply human.

At 352 pages, After Kilimanjaro offers readers a thought provoking and heartfelt exploration of vocation, cultural awareness, and the transformative power of stepping outside one’s comfort zone. It will resonate strongly with readers who enjoy women’s fiction infused with global perspective, medical realism, and emotional growth.

[Denny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remarkable story of practising medicine in Tanzania

This is a very informative look at women’s health issues in Tanzania set in the context of the main character’s personal journey.

Sarah Whittaker is a talented surgeon who embarks on a journey of discovery almost by accident. Originally planning on accompanying her fiancé on his research trip to Tanzania, Sarah goes there alone after he backs out. Conditions are primitive but Sarah throws herself into finding meaningful ways of helping.

The medical descriptions are fascinating and informative. I came to like Sarah immensely. Unlike other reviewers who didn’t enjoy the romance, I found the complexity of the relationships more important than the developing romance between colleagues. I appreciated that the primary focus was on the medical and surgical dilemmas arising from too few resources and a rural population.

The dynamics between all the characters was explored and I enjoyed the growing empowerment of the local women.

I hope that the author writes more of this type of novel. Her surgical expertise and her writing skills made for compelling reading.

[Mallory (onmalsshelf) Bartel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. When I first saw the synopsis for this book I thought, “this seems right up my alley”, and it was.

After Kilimanjaro is a coming of age story for a young doctor nearing the end of her surgical training when she takes a research position in Tanzania. After her fiancé David has to back out after his funding dries up, Sarah departs for a life changing journey.

Enter Pieter, Margo, Ameera, and Rasheed: the group of people that will pave the way for huge life changes for Sarah.

When Sarah’s research becomes entangled with training traditional birth attendants to do more with their patients, she also learns more about female genital mutilation and why is happens.

Dr. Gayle Woodson combined medicine, romance, and a virus outbreak into one great novel. I recommend this to anyone who has thought about taking a year to do research or anyone who wants to get away in their mind to a land where there are beautiful birds, leopards, and life changing events.

Thank you Book Sparks, She Writes Press, and Dr. Gayle Woodson for a copy in return for an honest review.

[Suanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

After Kilimanjaro is Gayle Woodson’s debut novel, and one I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Her descriptions are so accurate I sensed we’d stood in one another’s footsteps in parts of the Serengeti. Like Woodson, I am a physician, so I can attest to the accuracy of the medical aspects. I can also assure readers of the accuracy of the medical problems that threaten to overwhelm the medical structure of Tanzania such as poor prenatal care, female genital mutilation, HIV, malaria, African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), and malnutrition. She blends these medical aspects seamlessly into her novel along with a slow-burn romance.

The protagonist, a young female physician, accepts a one-year research position in Tanzania but finds herself far more involved with the medical than the research aspects. Also unexpected is her interest, despite being engaged to a physician in Philadelphia, in a Dutch physician also working in Tanzania. Woodson fully develops even her minor characters, and this book is a joy to read.

[hungrybookworm.reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

ℝ 𝔼 𝕍 𝕀 𝔼 𝕎 📝
I'm annoyingly fastidious about choosing books I read recently. Fortunately I ended up liking After Kilimanjaro, this one just gave me what I wanted. I totally love how the author magically transported me to Tanzania. The surgeries and medical procedures were vividly described. It reminded me the first time I scrub in for surgery and that feeling when I witnessed my first patient died. I automatically felt connected to it.

I like Sarah she was strong willed but not explicitly feminist. There were scenes in the book that I felt she was very naive but I didn't hate her. Pieter was very likeable and he had me laughing many times. Made me asked myself why didn't I just end up being an Anesthesiologist instead. 😅

I finished this book in one sitting, oh how I wish there's a few more pages to read. But it's ok, it ended just right. I gave this book a 4-star rating.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice first attempt.
The setting was interesting, the entangled love stories were credible, maybe the medical actions and terminology were correct. Some of the things the protagonist noticed and experienced felt autobiographical which I liked.

I saw two main flaws with this book
1. Things went way too smoothly for the protagonist- she was too perfect. She was always the hero of her medical challenges. In the end she falls in love with another guy, but IMHO there’s not much hard won transformation in this element of the story.
2. There’s a lot of information dumped into the story. I felt like like the novel’s primary purpose was to pour information about the health care challenges of Tanzania into my brain rather than give me a satisfying story in which there was enough organic information to make me want to investigate the topic further.

Others reviews were more specific about the research short comings of the story.

I really wanted to like this book because I’m writing my first fiction and am a member of the women’s writing organization that sponsored a writing competition and was disappointed that this book was a finalist in this competition. I didn’t think it was that good. However, I know from personal experience how much effort goes into even a flawed book. So congratulations to the author for getting the job done.

[Ayobankole · Rating 5 out of 5]

After Kilimanjaro by Gayle Woodson takes us on a journey to Tanzania with Dr. Sarah Whitaker, a Philadelphia trainee Surgeon. Dr. Sarah and her fiance David had planned to take a sabbatical in Tanzania but David's Funding arrangement fell through and Sarah having secured her funding went on her own. The book is set in the shadows of Kilimanjaro, a mountain that she and David had planned on climbing together. Sarah settled into Tanzanian life quickly having made friends with the locals and work colleagues. The high rate of maternal mortality and female genital mutilation against the beautiful backdrop of stunning natural beauty becomes the catalyst for Dr. Sarah's life-changing adventure. Her adventure makes this novel a page-turner. The research that went into writing this book is evident both in the medical descriptions of the ailments and the description of the landscape. Humour, adventure, romance, suspense are all served up in this beautifully written novel.

[Lisa Brakspear · Rating 1 out of 5]

What drew me to this book was the location. Having been lucky enough to visit Kenya and Tanzania, I was hoping this would bring back wonderful memories. Unfortunately I was very disappointed. The plot and characters reminded me of a Hallmark movie - lacking in originality and depth - and the descriptions of Africa could have been lifted from a bland travel guide. The best parts of the book for me was learning about the medical problems and procedures. A major problem with this book as well are the numerous mistakes. There are several every chapter which range from spelling mistakes, missing words, and characters being referred to in incorrect genders. A really obvious mistake are the two references to the character spotting Toucans - a bird only found in South America. A quick Google search shows that they would have been Hornbills.

[Christina Wirsing · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave this book 5 stars, this book was honestly an adventure, I have always wanted to travel to Africa, but I have never gotten the chance to go, this book took me there, the main character Sarah is a Surgeon and you're spending a lot of time in the hospital, but it was not too gory, honestly I learned a lot of medical information from this book. This was the first coming of age book that I have read, and honestly, I loved it, and am going to branch out more on the Genre of books that I read now, thanks, Gayle. More about Sarah, I really liked her and I felt for her with the issues she was having relationship-wise by being in a different country, but I do have to say I was satisfied with the ending and I do recommend this book.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A huge thank you to Booksparks and Gayle Woodson for allowing me to be a part of After Kilimanjaro’s pop up book and receiving an early copy.

Gayle Woodson knocked it out of the park with this coming of age novel. We follow Sarah from America to the rural villages in Tanzania, and let me tell you, I felt like I was there. The descriptions of the villages and scenery were fantastic! The characters were well developed and I loved learning more about each one. While this is a coming of age story, and a love story, there is SO much about the medical field that is woven into the story. I absolutely loved all aspects of this novel and couldn’t stop reading once I got into the story. I definitely recommend this for any Grey’s Anatomy fans, and anyone that’s looking for an adventure.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wish I Could Go To Africa

After Kilimanjaro offers the reader a fascinating story revolving around a female surgeon who goes to Tanzania. You will quickly feel like part of the African adventure, learn about changes in African medicine, and explore the beauty of the country. Integrated into the book is a sweet love story. It is obvious the writer loves Africa and did a tremendous amount of research to enrich her book. This is a fast and interesting read, and it would be a great book club selection!

[Olivia Farmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved how the relationships between people and situations were real. You may not agree with decisions (as per the real world), but there was a back story to support understanding. The medical use/terms/environment were accurate so I enjoyed not getting irritated by "glamourized medicine." I would highly recommend this book to the adventure lover, romantic, curious, strong, and independent person.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tanzania is the setting for this intriguing romance which explores female genital cutting and childbirth mortality in the villages. The characters are well-defined and the issues are sensitively discussed and respectful of the local culture. There are errors in sentence structure and I'm still trying to decide if "agonal" is a word. I think not! Looking forward to the author's next book; her medical expertise is a plus here, but she didn't bog us down in the details.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! Thoroughly enjoyed learning more about Tanzania - from Kilimanjaro to Zanzabar and points in between. The global health storyline was also fascinating and educational. Also enjoyed the evolution of the main character. Hadn’t heard anything about this book so it was an unexpected delight.

[Merrilee Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great read

Although the outcome was predicable the story was told in such a delightful way that I did not want it to end. I loved the read!
The only annoying factor was how many typos that were not corrected. I don’t think that I have ever seen so many in a published book.

[Chelsea Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was ok but I could not stand all the spelling and grammar errors. Way too many for a published book, especially one by a physician. Also, there really wasn’t that much about FGM which I thought would be more prevalent

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Light, easy read, but way too many grammar errors and poorly structured sentences for a published book. I also noticed incorrect medical acronyms, which is surprising considering the author is a surgeon herself. 2 stars.

[Jacqui Bassett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly read it because I also climbed Kili - it was an easy read. More a love story than anything to do with the climb to the summit which was disappointing.
However, there were some interesting insights into Tanzania.