Published by Faber & Faber, 2020, 384 pages. What happens when dreams, and the confidence of youth, disappear? What happens when life turns out to be less than what we expected? And worst of all, what happens when we disappoint ourselves? This is what Tambudzai, the protagonist of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s This Mournable Body, finds herself …
Month: January 2021
Rosy is My Relative: Gerald Durrell
Published by The Chaucer Press / Fontana Press / Viking Adult, 1968, 240 pages. Adrian Rookwhistle has led an uneventful life. The son of a vicar, he lost both parents when he was 20. When we meet him, he is 30, working in London as a clerk in the firm of Bindweed, Cornelius and Chunter, …
Of Water and the Spirit—Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman: Malidoma Patrice Somé
Published by Penguin, 1994, 311 pages. “The story I am going to tell comes from a place deep inside of myself, a place that perceives all that I have irremediably lost and, perhaps, what gain there is behind the loss. If people forget their past as a way to survive, other people remember it for …
The Devil and the Dark Water: Stuart Turton
Published by Raven Books, 2020, 576 pages. 1634. A ship, the Saardam, is about to set sail from Batavia in the Dutch East Indies to Amsterdam. The ship is carrying a secret cargo that only very few know about. On board are the ambitious Governor General of Batavia, Jan Haan; his wife Sara Wessel and …
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The Baltimore Boys: Joël Dicker
Translated from French by Alison AndersonPublished by MacLehose Press, 2017, 448 pages. Original version published in 2015. Marcus Goldman is a successful writer who has moved to Florida to write his next book. But he is haunted by his past: his point of reference is a “tragedy”, and he measures time from the event. Ever …
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