Petina Gappah

Moving between the vibrant townships of the poor and the suburbs and country retreats of the rich, The Book of Memory is a compelling, contemporary tale of love, obsession and the cruelty of fate. Memory is an albino woman, languisihing in prison in Harare, Zimbabwe. At nine years old she was adopted by a wealthy man - a man whose murder she is now convicted of. Facing the death penalty, she tells the story os the chain of events that brought her there. But is everything exactly as she remembers it?

Petina Gappah's epic journey through nineteenth-century Africa - following the funeral caravan who bore Bwana Daudi's body - is 'engrossing, beautiful and deeply imaginative.' (Yaa Gyasi) This is the story of the body of Bwana Daudi, the Doctor, the explorer David Livingstone - and the sixty-nine men and women who carried his remains for 1,500 miles so that he could be borne across the sea and buried in his own country. The wise men of his age say Livingstone blazed into the darkness of their native land leaving a track of light behind where white men who followed him could tread in perfect safety. But in Petina Gappah's radical novel, it is those in the shadows of history - those who saved a white man's bones; his dark companions; his faithful retinue on an epic funeral march - whose voices are resurrected with searing intensity. This final, fateful journey across the African interior is lead by Halima, Livingstone's sharp-tongued cook, and three of his most devoted servants: Jacob, Chuma and Susi. Their tale of how his corpse was borne out of nineteenth-century Africa - carrying the maps that sowed the seeds of the continent's brutal colonisation - has the power of myth. It is not only symbolic of slavery's hypocrisy, but a portrait of a world trembling on the cusp of total change - and a celebration of human bravery, loyalty and love.

The government has cleaned up Harare for the Queen of England's visit. 'The townships are too full of people, they said, gather them up and put them in the places the Queen will not see.' Four waves of people have settled on Easterly Farm since then, living on the margins in homes that will soon be destroyed. Among them is Martha Mupengo. She has lost her wits, and gained a pregnancy. Who could be the baby's father, and what fate awaits mothers and children in this temporary, poverty-stricken town?

The government has cleaned up Harare for the Queen of England's visit. 'The townships are too full of people, they said, gather them up and put them in the places the Queen will not see.' Four waves of people have settled on Easterly Farm since then, living on the margins in homes that will soon be destroyed. Among them is Martha Mupengo. She has lost her wits, and gained a pregnancy. Who could be the baby's father, and what fate awaits mothers and children in this temporary, poverty-stricken town?