Book description
An intimate and moving portrait of a family combined with an account of
the events which swept through Africa in the post-independence period.
Aminatta Forna's intensely personal history is a passionate and vivid
account of an African childhood - of an idyll that became a nightmare.
As a child she witnessed the upheavals of post-colonial Africa, the
bitterness of exile in Britain and the terrible consequences of her
dissident father's stand against tyranny.
Mohamed Forna, a man of unimpeachable integrity and great charisma, was
a new star in the political firmament Sierra Leone as the country faced
its future as a fledgling democracy. Always a political firebrand, he
was one of the first black students to come to Britain after the war. In
Aberdeen he stole the heart of Aminatta's mother, to the dismay of her
Presbyterian parents, and returned with her to Sierra Leone. But the new
ways of Western parliamentary democracy were tearing old Africa apart,
giving rise only to dictatorships and corruption of hitherto
undreamed-of magnitude. It was not long before Aminatta's father
languished in jail as a prisoner of conscience, and there was worse to come.
Aminatta's search for the truth that shaped both her childhood and the
nation's destiny begins among the country's elite and takes her into the
heart of rebel territory. Determined to break the silence surrounding
her father's fate, she ultimately uncovered a conspiracy that penetrated
the highest reaches of government and forced the nation's politicians
and judiciary to confront their guilt. 'This is a book of quite
extraordinary power and beauty. Aminatta Forna has excavated not only
her memory but the hidden recesses of the heart.' Fergal Keane
'An extraordinary and gripping story…Aminatta Forna's book glows with
compassion. A modern classic, of which her courageous father would have
been proud.' Peter Gowin, author of 'Mukiwa'
'An engrossing account of pain, love and discovery that had the
capacity not only to make me understand but also to move me to tears'
Gillian Slovo, author of 'Every Secret Thing'
'I had tears in my eyes almost the whole way through, although it is
the least sentimental of books…Aminatta Forna manages, quite
brilliantly, to evoke not only all the honour and pity that is in her
family's story, but its beauty and tenderness too.' Katie Hickman,
author of 'Daughters of Britannia' Aminatta Forna is a writer and
author of The Devil that Danced on the Water, a memoir of her dissident
father. Her most recent book Ancestor Stones, a novel, was published in
July 2006 and tells the story of the lives of four sister, daughters of
a wealthy West African plantation owner. Published in 2002, The Devil
that Danced on the Water was runner-up for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2003
serialised as 'Book of the Week' on BBC Radio and extracted in the
Sunday Times newspaper in the UK. In the United States it was selected
for the Barnes & Noble new writers Discovery series. Aminatta
returned to Sierra Leone to film a documentary series 'Africa Unmasked,'
which examined many of the themes of her recent book. The series aired
on Channel 4 in November 2002. A former BBC reporter, she reported and
presented on various politics, current affairs and arts programmes
between 1989 and 1999. She is a contributor to several newspapers
including the Independent, The Observer, the Sunday Times and the
Evening Standard. She has acted as a judge for the MacMillan African
Writer's Prize in 2003, the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2004 and the Caine
Prize for Africa 2005 and 2006. She sits on the board of the Caine Prize
and also Index on Censorship.
