Reader's Place: February 6, 2022
AFRICAN AUTHORS: Writers from the continent of Africa are some of the most exciting new authors being read in the west. Here’s a tasting of a few new voices, along with a well-established one.
Shelf life: chronicles of a Cairo bookseller, by Nadia Wassef, 2021. (Library Catalog)
The warm and winning story of starting a bookstore where there were none, Shelf Life recounts Nadia Wassef's troubles and triumphs as founder and manager of Cairo-based Diwan.
I am a girl from Africa: a memoir, by Elizabeth Nyamayaro, 2021. (Library Catalog)
The inspiring journey of a girl from Africa whose near-death experience sparked a dream that changed the world. When severe draught hit her village in Zimbabwe, Elizabeth, then eight, had no idea that a moment of utter devastation would come to define her life purpose. Grounded by the African concept of ubuntu - "I am because we are" - I Am a Girl from Africa charts Elizabeth's quest in pursuit of herdream from the small village of Goromonzi to Harare, London, New York, and beyond, where she eventually became a Senior Advisor at the United Nations and launched HeForShe, one of the world's largest global solidarity movements for gender equality.
Gravel heart, by Abdulrazak Gurnah, 2017. (Library Catalog, eBCCLS)
Living with his parents and his adored Uncle Amir in a house full of secrets, Salim is a bookish child, a dreamer haunted by night terrors. It is the 1970s and Zanzibar is changing. Tourists arrive, the island's white sands obscuring the memory of recent conflict--the longed-for independence from British colonialism swiftly followed by bloody revolution. When glamorous Uncle Amir, now a senior diplomat, offers Salim an escape, the lonely teenager travels to London for college. But nothing has prepared him for the biting cold and seething crowds of this hostile city. Struggling to find a foothold, and to understand the darkness at the heart of his family, he must face devastating truths about those closest to him--and about love, sex, and power.
Chronicles from the land of the happiest people on earth, by Wole Soyinka, 2021. (Library Catalog, eBCCLS)
In an imaginary Nigeria, a cunning entrepreneur is selling body parts stolen from Dr. Menka's hospital for use in ritualistic practices. Dr. Menka shares the grisly
news with his oldest college friend, bon viveur, star engineer, and Yoruba royal, Duyole Pitan-Payne-the life of every party- who is about to assume a prestigious
post at the United Nations in New York. It now seems that someone is determined that he not make it there. Neither Dr. Menka nor Duyole knows why, or how close the enemy is, how powerful. Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth is at once a literary hoot, a crafty whodunit, and a scathing indictment of Nigeria's political elite.
Compiled by Ina Rimpau