Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan Discussion Leaders: Deni Corbett LISTENING FOR LIONS, the latest novel by National Book Award winner Gloria Whelan, is the story of Rachel Sheridan, the daughter of English missionaries working with the Kikuyu people in the East African village of Tumaini. Although Rachel is raised in humble surroundings --- a mud brick house with a roof that leaks --- she is happy, helping her father in the hospital and visiting the local people in their shambas. When the influenza epidemic of 1919 reaches Tumaini, however, Rachel's whole life changes. Not only do the Africans flee the village out of fear of the illness, but her own parents are struck down by the disease.