Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi

It's a good month, another wonderful read.  Gyasi tells the family history of two sisters born to different fathers in Africa - one who becomes the wife of a British slaver on the Gold Coast of Africa and the other who is sold into slavery and taken to America.  She follows their descendants through time, teaching us the history of Africa and America from the beginning of the slave trade to modern day from the point of view of their descendants. What I appreciated is what I learned of the life of those in Africa and the perspectives of the slaves taken to America.  Like the book, A Place for Us that I finished earlier this month, it taught me to look through the characters eyes and experience their lives.  

The author leads us through time with the families - the end of slavery and the wars in Africa; freed slaves in Baltimore, Maryland; slavers working in the coal mines of Alabama; Harlem and the impact of prejudice and racism that is passed on.  I loved how the author brings the story along subtly and indirectly, introducing each generation in their own time frame yet maintaining the continuity of their ancestors. This is storytelling at its best.

Published: 2016  Read: October 2024  Genre: Fiction

The Girl Who Smiled Beads - Clemantine Wamariya

 Sub-title: A Story of War and What Comes After

with: Elizabeth Weil

A very sad tale of a young Rwanda woman who at age 6 was caught up in the genocide.  She and her sister moved from one refugee camp to another over several years before getting asylum in the U.S. The author is a recognized speaker and activist who completed college at Yale and appears happy and successful.  The story reveals her true feelings of loss, anger, fear and distrust as a result of her journey.   A powerful read that left me wanting to know more.

Quote: "Taking care of loved ones in my world was not based on affection.  It was based on the fear of losing them."

Published: 2018  Read: August 2021  Genre: Memoir

Chronicler of the Winds - Henning Mankell

translated by Tiina Nunnally

This was another find at a book exchange in a campground on our travels this summer.  The author is well-known (but not by me) for his Kurt Wallander mysteries however this story is a departure from his usual writing.

Nelio is a nine or ten year old boy in Africa, living on the streets after his village was attacked by bandits and he escaped their insane violence.  The narrator, Jose, finds him shot on a theatre stage behind the bakery where Jose works.  He carries him to the rooftop where over the course of nine days, Nelio tells him the story of his life before dying from his wounds.  Jose chronicles the story carried by Nelio’s last breaths. 

It’s a short tale that seeks to reveal how humanity can survive evil and violence if we would pay attention to even the least of ourselves. 

The translator is the same woman who translated Smila’s Sense of Snow, another Norweign book that I enjoyed much more than this one. 

Published:  1995 (translated 2006)  Read: June 2016  Genre: Fiction, philosophy