Shortlisted for the 2024 National Book Award Longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize
"As foolish to think we are free of history as it would be of gravity Shortlisted for the 2024 National Book Award Longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize
"As foolish to think we are free of history as it would be of gravity." Hisham Matar.
Simply put, I loved this book. In My Friends, Hisham Matar examines the impact of political exile on relationships with family, friends, and self. Khaled, the novel's protagonist, is an accidental emigrant. At eighteen, he leaves his native Libya to study literature at the University of Edinburgh. It is 1984, and the violent and repressive dictatorship of Muammar el-Qaddafi is at its height. When the regime hangs two student activists in Tripoli, Khaled and his university friend Mustafa decide to attend a demonstration outside the Libyan Embassy in London.
Matar captures the idealism and sense of invincibility of youth in the two eighteen-year-olds as they journey from Scotland to London. They realize that demonstrating against the regime, even in London, could have its dangers and purchase balaclavas to cover their faces. Unfortunately, snipers in the embassy compound opened fire and shot both young men, and they spent weeks recuperating in a London hospital.
Given the repressive nature of the regime, they can not contact their families. Phones are bugged, and the Quaddafi's government could retaliate against their families if they learn of their participation. In addition, they can't return to school where Quaddafi supporters in the student body may note their long absence. Both teens were granted political asylum and had to find a way to survive. The novel examines their journey from the time of the demonstration to the Arab Spring and the role of Khaled's friendships with Mustafa and Hosam Zowa, a writer who was six years his senior and adrift due to writing political allegories.
My Friends offers an intriguing plot and a thoughtful meditation on friendship, politics, and the role of history in life. I strongly recommend it.
The Promise is a finely crafted novel with well-developed characters, the majority of whom are unsympathetic Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2021
The Promise is a finely crafted novel with well-developed characters, the majority of whom are unsympathetic. It is the story of the Swarts, a dysfunctional, white Afrikaner family whose ancestors came to South Africa with the Voortrekkers. The family is well off and owns a farm outside Pretoria and a Reptile Park known as Scaly City. The book is divided into four sections, each spanning approximately ten years that mark a significant time in South African history and the funeral of a member of the Swart family.
The story begins in 1986 towards the end of the Apartheid era at the funeral of Rachel, who died of cancer and is the 40-year-old mother of three children Anton, Astrid, and Amor. Rachel's dying wish is that Salome, the family servant who has cared for Rachel through her illness, be given the small house she inhabits and a small patch of land around it. Her husband, Manie, promises, and their youngest daughter witnesses the encounter.
Manie fails to keep his word, and as the family members pass, the remaining siblings follow suit despite Amor's insistence. Thus, the family farm, house, and land come to symbolize the legacies of Apartheid, and each character a type of white response.
Damon Galgut is an outstanding writer. His prose is lean, and his characters finely drawn. His omniscient narrator roams the pages deftly, entering the characters' thoughts, and then gleefully pulls back to make an acerbic comment.
I found Amor to be the most sympathetic character. She flees from the family and works as a nurse with AIDS patients, only surfacing for the family funerals. Galgut depicts her as a kind person filled with guilt and a desire to atone for Apartheid's sins. She manages to fulfill her mother's promise to Salome thirty years after the fact and is challenged by Salome's son, who sees the gesture as too little too late.
Overall, I liked The Promise and felt the book painted a vivid picture of the experiences and responses of white Afrikaners. However, the black characters were too much in the background. The book would have been richer and fuller if their voices and experiences had been included throughout.
It is currently estimated that 7 out of every 1,000 Africans are trafficked into slavery. Gail Collins, New African
Abi Dare's debut novel is an unflinIt is currently estimated that 7 out of every 1,000 Africans are trafficked into slavery. Gail Collins, New African
Abi Dare's debut novel is an unflinching examination of the plight of Nigerian women born into poverty. Written from the viewpoint of Adunni, a 14-year-old from a small, rural Yoruba village, this ambitious novel explores child marriage, modern-day slavery, social class.
Adunni's story begins with the death of her mother, the family breadwinner, who has instilled in Adunni a desire for education. Despite his promise to his wife to allow Adunni to continue with her schooling, Adunni's father arranges her marriage to the village taxi driver, a man twice her age, with two other wives and three daughters. In exchange for Adunni, her father receives the bride price of four he-goats, Agric fowl, two bags of rice, and money.
Adunni's marriage has a nightmarish quality. Her husband is an overbearing patriarch who purchased her to produce a male heir. His petty first wife is jealous and cruel. The second wife is Adunni's only source of solace, and when she meets an untimely death, Adunni flees.
A friend of her mother introduces Adunni to a man who helps women find work. The man drives her to Lagos and trafficks her to a wealthy woman, Big Madam, who needs a housemaid. He collects her salary and leaves her to receive one meal a day in exchange for 10- 12 hours of daily labor. Unfortunately, big Madam is an abusive employer who often flies off the handle and beats her. In addition, Adunni must fend off the advances from Big Madam's lecherous husband.
To Dare's credit, the novel does not descend into melodrama due to the spirited voice and plucky resolve of Adunni. Her naive and often poignant observations of the workings of social class and patriarchy, written in English patois (She is a native Yoruba speaker), and humor and wit. At the same time, her encounters with individuals who attempt to help her add an aura of hope to what otherwise would be a bleak tale.
I enjoyed the book and learned a lot. It introduced me to a world in which I previously knew little and made me want to take a stand against modern-day slavery.
On April 14,2014, Boko Haram, a Nigerian jihadist group captured 276 sixteen to seventeen- year- old girls from the Chibok school in Northern Nigeria. On April 14,2014, Boko Haram, a Nigerian jihadist group captured 276 sixteen to seventeen- year- old girls from the Chibok school in Northern Nigeria. The girls had come to to the school to sit for their physics exams and ended up as slaves of the Boko Haram, who gang raped them into submission.
Girl is a fictionalized account of the girls' ordeal told through the eyes of Maryam, a survivor. Her story begins with her capture, and time as a slave, then follows her forced marriage and entry into motherhood. After close to two years, Maryam and her infant daughter manage to escape the jihadist compound. She describes her time in the woods and rescue by a tribe of herding nomads, and the difficulties of her return and reintegration into mainstream society. Her story is a testament to human resilience....more