We wrap up book news for our readers in our regular Book Digest segment with books from Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, Ayaan Mohamud, Mamadou Socrates Diop, and Franklyn Addo.
My Parents’ Marriage A Novel By Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
Publisher: Amistad
Date: July 9, 2024
Genre: Fiction
Language: English
Where to find it: Harper Collins
Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is the author of the children’s picture book Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky, illustrated by Caldecott Honor Artist Daniel Minter; and the young adult novel Powder Necklace. She is the editor of Relations An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices Her short fiction for adults has been included in the anthologies Accra Noir, Africa39, New Daughters of Africa, Everyday People, and Woman’s Work.
My Parents’ Marriage A Novel
Acclaimed children’s author Nana Brew-Hammond makes her highly anticipated return with this soaring and profound story about love and understanding told through three generations of one Ghanian family.
Determined to avoid the pain and instability of her parents’ turbulent, confusing marriage, Kokui marries a man far different from her loving, philandering, self-made father—and tries to be a different kind of wife from her mother.
But when Kokui and her husband leave Ghana to make a new life for themselves in America, she finds history repeating itself. Her marriage failing, she is called home to Ghana when her father dies. Back in her childhood home, which feels both familiar and discomforting, she comes to realize that to exorcize the ghosts of her parents’ marriage she must confront them to enable her healing.
Tender and illuminating, warm and bittersweet My Parents’ Marriage is a compelling story of family, community, class, and self-identity from an author with deep empathy and a generous heart.
La Légende de la Dette by Mamadou Socrates Diop
Publisher: Editions Le Tamarinier
Date: July 2024
Genre: Fiction
Language: Fiction
Where to find it: Editions Le Tamarinier
Mamadou Socrates Diop
Mamadou Socrates Diop is a Senegalese director, screenwriter, and writer.
La Légende de la Dette (English: The Legend of Debt)
Début des « années 2000 », Niaary Gaar dans la région de Thiès. La découverte d’un conteneur exposé à l’Usine d’exploitation du phosphate enfl e la rumeur : le maire de la commune aurait accordé une licence à une entreprise étrangère pour le traitement d’un réservoir de déchets toxiques. Pendant que la ville sombre dans la psychose, une mystérieuse épidémie gagne du terrain : partout du vomi, du crachat, des intoxications, des décès. Un groupe de jeunes lycéens et quelques employés de l’Usine, décident alors d’alerter l’opinion et de mener le combat aux côtés de l’inspecteur de police et du médecin de la ville. Leur objectif : saisir les instances nationales et internationales, faire condamner le maire de la ville, l’entreprise étrangère et toutes les personnes en lien avec ce transfert de déchets. Ainsi, entre le Sénégal et la France, le roman remonte le parcours du « conteneur toxique » en mêlant la fi ction au réel, le conte à la réalité, pour tisser l’histoire de deux villes abîmées du même fait : que nous reste-t-il d’humain quand la lâcheté commune trahit le pacte social ?
The Thread That Connects Us by Ayaan Mohamud
Publisher: Usborne Publishing
Date: July 4, 2024
Genre: Fiction
Language: English
Where to find it: Usborne Publishing, Cole Books
Ayaan Mohamud
Ayaan Mohamud wrote her first ever book in lockdown and during NaNoWriMo, while also studying as a medical student, and it became her debut novel. It was inspired by her own experiences of Islamophobia and a desire to write about Somali culture, which she hopes to shine more of a light on in YA. She lives in London and can usually be found either writing or complaining about writing.
The Thread That Connects Us
A story of shared blood and bad blood, endings and beginnings Safiya has struggled to pick up the pieces of her family since her dad left them and moved to Somalia. She refuses to trust in love, despite wishing she could fall for boy-next-door Yusuf. And then her dad moves back to town with his new family, shattering her life all over again. Halima doesn’t want to move to England. She resents her stepdad for dropping her in a strange new life with a new language to learn – replacing her friends with bullies who set out to shame her. When the girls are thrown together at school, it’s hate at first sight. But as they uncover life-changing secrets from their parents’ past, they begin to realize. What if the key to all their problems lies in their sisterhood?
A Quick Ting On: Grime by Franklyn Addo
Publisher: Jacaranda
Date: March 14, 2024
Genre: Nonfiction
Language: English
Where to find it: Jacaranda
Franklyn Addo
Franklyn Addo is a social commentator, journalist, youth worker and rapper whose work revolves around the promotion of social justice. His biographical experiences of growing up in (pre-gentrification) Hackney, where he continues to reside, has led him to become devoted to understanding the causes of issues like serious youth violence and the criminalisation of young people, as well as acting to resolve them.
A Quick Ting On: Grime
From pirate radio to Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage, journalist and rapper Franklyn Addo pens an extraordinary narrative of the history, present and future of Grime music. The influence of Grime on contemporary British culture is difficult to understate. From fashion trends and evolving language to potent political statements, Grime is a musical juggernaut that has reverberated far throughout British society. Chronicled for the first time in powerful literary prose, Addo intelligently documents the genre’s cultural explosion and investigates how it became the voice of a generation. A phenomenal insight into the captivating and electrifying genre that has taken the British music scene by storm, A Quick Ting On: Grime is an essential and long-awaited read for Stormzy aficionados and grime newcomers alike
Leave a Reply