HOLD ON TO THE SUN
Michal Govrin
In this portrait of the artist as a young woman, Michal Govrin, one of Israel's most important contemporary writers, offers a kaleidoscope of stories and essays. Populated by mysterious and real people, each tale is in some way a search for meaning in a post-Holocaust world. Reminiscent of W.G. Sebald, characters irrationally and humanely find reason for hope in a world that offers little. The essays describe Govrin's visits to Poland as a young adult, where her mother had survived a death camp. Govrin journeys there after she learns that her mother had not been alone. She lost her first husband and eight-year-old son, Govrin's half brother, and kept it a secret from her second family for many years. In a multiplicity of voices, Govrin's haunting stories capture the depths of denial and the exuberance of youth.
Michal Govrin was born in Tel Aviv. Working as a novelist, poet, and theater director, Govrin has published eight books of poetry and fiction. Among her novels, The Name received the Kugel Literary Prize in Israel and was nominated for the Koret Jewish Book Award. Snapshots was awarded the 2003 Acum Prize for the Best Literary Achievement of the Year. Govrin was nominated for the Israel Prime Minister's Prize, the nation's highest honor, in 1998. Among the pioneers of Jewish experimental theatre, Govrin has directed award-winning performances in all the major theatres in Israel. Govrin has been selected by the Salon du Livre as one of the most influential writers of the past thirty years.
Feminist Press, paperback, 9781558616738 (October)
|
IN BORROWED LIGHT
Stephanie Keating and Barbara Keating
Hannah Olsen and her husband Lars own Langani Farm and Safari Lodge, where they struggle to protect their wildlife and land from poachers and corrupt officials. But the developing relationship between their daughter and a young African boy with a terrifying legacy tests the strength of their family. Sarah Singh, wildlife researcher and renowned photographer, is married to an Indian journalist. However, their inability to have children puts Sarah's relationship with her husband and his family under increasing pressure. Camilla Broughton Smith, international model and fashion designer, has given up a dazzling career to work with the charismatic safari guide Anthony Chapman, who has been disabled in a tragic accident. Yet his bitterness and fear of commitment threaten to shatter her dreams.
Set in the magnificent but unpredictable wilds of Kenya, In Borrowed Light, the final part of the Langani Trilogy, is a story of courage and fortitude, of loyalty and murderous deceit, of friendship and betrayal and redeeming sacrifice.
Harvill Secker, paperback, 184655151X
|
SWALLOW
Sefi Atta
It is the mid-1980s in Lagos, Nigeria, and the government's War against Indiscipline is in full operation. Amid poverty and tight rules and regulations, women especially must sacrifice dignity and safety in order to find work and peace. Tolani Ajao is a secretary working at Federal Community Bank. A succession of unfortunate events leads Tolani's roommate and volatile friend Rose to persuade her to consider drug trafficking as an alternative means of making a living. Tolani's struggle with temptation forces her to reconsider her morality and that of her mother, Arike; Swallow weaves the stories of the two women intricately together in a vivid, unforgettable portrayal of Tolani's turbulent journey of self-discovery.
Sefi Atta was born in Lagos, Nigeria. Her first novel, Everything Good Will Come, won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. Her short-story collection News from Home received the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.
Interlink Plublishing, paperback, 9781566568333
|
I WANT TO GET MARRIED!
Ghada Abdel Aal
Translated from the Arabic by Nora Eltahawy
After years of searching for Mr. Right in living-room meetings arranged by family or friends, Ghada Abdel Aal, a young Egyptian professional, decided to take to the blogosphere to share her experiences and vent her frustrations at being young, single, and female in Egypt. Her blog, I Want to Get Married!, quickly became a hit with both men and women in the Arab world. With a keen sense of humor and biting social commentary, Abdel Aal recounts in painful detail her adventures with failed proposals and unacceptable suitors.
I Want to Get Married! has since become a best-selling book in Egypt and the inspiration for a television series. This witty look at dating challenges skewed representations of the Middle East and presents a realistic picture of what it means to be a single young woman in the Arab world, where, like elsewhere, a good man can be hard to find.
Univ. of Texas Press, paperback, 9780292723979 (October)
|
MIRAL
Rula Jebreal
Translated by John Cullen
In 1948, as violence erupts in Jerusalem, a young Arab woman, Hind Husseini, finds fifty-five abandoned children in the streets and faces the biggest challenge of her life. Hind establishes the Dar El-Tifel orphanage, dedicating her life to providing love, support and education to the children, and changing their destiny. As the years pass and the conflict rages on, Hind finds that—despite her best efforts—some of her older students are taking part in the violent struggle for Palestinian independence, including one of her brightest students, Miral. Rula Jebreal traces the lives of generations of Palestinians in order to understand the intractable conflict. Based on fact, Hind Husseini, benefactor of thousands of children, is the figurehead in this examination of race, religion and what a homeland means. The movie by the same name, the screenplay of which was adapted by the author from her novel, is due to be released this fall.
Penguin, paperback, 9780143116196 Movie tie-in edition (October)
|
|
|
LIFE TIMES: STORIES 1952‒2007
Nadine Gordimer
Throughout her career the internationally renowned South African writer Nadine Gordimer has built a literary reputation with her incisive short stories, as much as with her acclaimed novels. Together with her essays, this highly imaginative and committed body of work won her the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. Now, for the first time, the best of her stories are published in one volume. Spanning six decades, the thirty-five stories are drawn from her ten published collections.
Bloomsbury UK, hardcover, 9780747592631
|
AFRICAN WOMEN WRITING RESISTANCE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY VOICES
Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez et al, eds.
African Women Writing Resistance is the first transnational anthology to focus on women's strategies of resistance to the challenges they face in Africa today. The anthology brings together personal narratives, testimony, interviews, short stories, poetry, performance scripts, folktales, and lyrics. Thematically organized, it presents women's writing on such issues as intertribal and interethnic conflicts, the degradation of the environment, polygamy, domestic abuse, the controversial traditional practice of female genital mutilation, Sharia law, intergenerational tensions, and emigration and exile.
Contributors include internationally recognized authors and activists such as Wangari Maathai and Nawal El Saadawi, as well as a host of vibrant new voices from all over the African continent and from the African diaspora. Interdisciplinary in scope, this collection provides an excellent introduction to contemporary African women's literature and highlights social issues that are particular to Africa but are also of worldwide concern. It is an essential reference for students of African studies, world literature, anthropology, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and women's studies.
Univ. of Wisconsin Press, paperback, 9780299236649
|
LET THE DEAD LIE
Malla Nunn
South Africa, 1953. The National Party's rigid race laws have split the nation and grueling poverty grips many on the edges of society. When former Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper stumbles across the body of a child, Jolly Marks, at the Durban docks, he cannot imagine what the discovery will lead to.
Soon Cooper finds himself under suspicion for not only Jolly's murder, but others' as well. The only way he can clear his name is to find out who the real killer was—and he's got 48 hours in which to do it. His investigations will lead him into Durban's murky underworld of pimps, prostitutes, strange and sinister preachers, and those on the wrong side of the race laws. For there is more to Jolly's barbaric murder than Cooper could ever have realized . . .
Malla Nunn was born in Swaziland, southern Africa, but moved to Australia in the 1970s. She studied theatre in America, where she met her husband and began writing and directing short films. Malla now lives in Sydney with her husband and two children.
Mantle, hardcover, 9780330519779
|
WHEN RAIN CLOUDS GATHER AND MARU
Bessie Head
When Rain Clouds Gather: Escaping South Africa and his troubled past, Makehaya crosses the border to Botswana, in the hope of leading a peaceful, purposeful life. In the village of Golema Mmidi he meets Gilbert, a charismatic Englishman who is trying to modernise farming methods to benefit the community. The two outsiders join forces, but their task is fraught with hazards: opposition from the corrupt chief, the pressures of tradition, and the unrelenting climate ever-threatening to wreak tragedy.
Maru: Margaret, an orphan from a despised tribe, has lived her life under the loving protection of a missionary's wife. She has only to open her mouth to cause confusion, for her education and English accent do not fit her looks. When she accepts her first teaching post, in a remote village, Margaret is befriended by Dikeledi, sister of Maru the chief-in-waiting. Despite making influential friends, Margaret faces prejudice even from the children she teaches, and her presence causes Maru and his best friend—also Dikeledi's lover—to become sworn enemies.
Virago, paperback, 9781844086221
|
THE BED BOOK OF SHORT STORIES
Edited by Lauri Kubuitsile and Joanne Hickens
The bed, dressed in hand-sewn quilt or threadbare blanket, may in and of itself be memorable but it is what happens in the bed—the sex and lovemaking, the dreams, the reading, the nightmares, the rest, giving birth and dying— that gives "bed" its meaning. Whether a bed is shared with a book, a child, a pet or a partner, whether lovers lie in ecstasy or indifference, whether "bed" relates to intimacy or betrayal, it is memories and recollections of "bed", in whatever form, which have kindled these thirty stories by women from Southern Africa. Well-known and new writers cast light on the intimate lives of women living in this part of the world, and the possibilities that are both available and denied them. The Bed Book of Short Stories—some quirky and tender, others traumatic or macabre—is the perfect companion to take to bed with you, to keep you reading long into the night.
Modjaji Books (SA) available through The African Book Collective, paperback, 9781920397319 or in the US through Michigan State Univ Press.
|
|
|
