Things that need to be healed

A wind had arisen — and it touched them now,, gently, reminding them, and it had rain on its breath, a token of that which heals the things that need to be healed.

Alexander McCall Smith, How to Raise an Elephant

Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels are so light and fluffy and charming that we may read them without even noticing that they carry serious themes — that they are actually about something.

Precious and Grace, for example, was about grace, not Grace Makutsi but rather the power of forgiveness. The author expands on this theme in How to Raise an Elephant (2020). The line quoted above is the last line in the novel, nicely summing up everything that has taken place. It's been all about healing the things that need to be healed.

As Botswana suffers from a long drought, Charlie finds himself with a baby elephant in his care. The mother has been killed by poachers, and now the mechanic/junior detective feeds it baby formula in his backyard. Soon everyone in the detective agency and the adjoining garage becomes involved in caring for the elephant, and they enlist the aid of Mma Potokwane, who runs the Orphan Farm. She should certainly know what to do with an orphan elephant, they think — and she does.

Meanwhile a distant relative of Precious Ramotswe comes to her asking for money. After visiting the woman, both Precious and Grace become suspicious. Something doesn't add up. And a quarreling couple move into the house next to that of Precious and Mr. J.LB. Matekoni.

All of these issues, drought included, require healing, and in just 242 light, fluffy and charming pages we watch it happen.