Afterlives: A NovelONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022 A NEW YORKER “ESSENTIAL READ” A NATIONAL BESTSELLER NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, THE NEW YORKER, BOOKPAGE, AND KIRKUS REVIEWS “Superb. . . . A celebration of a place and time when people held onto their own ways, and basked in ordinary joys even as outside forces conspired to take them away.” —New York Times From the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, a sweeping, multi-generational saga of displacement, loss, and love, set against the brutal colonization of east Africa. When he was just a boy, Ilyas was stolen from his parents on the coast of east Africa by German colonial troops. After years away, fighting against his own people, he returns home to find his parents gone and his sister, Afiya, abandoned into de facto slavery. Hamza, too, returns home from the war, scarred in body and soul and with nothing but the clothes on his back–until he meets the beautiful, undaunted Afiya. As these young people live and work and fall in love, their fates knotted ever more tightly together, the shadow of a new war on another continent falls over them, threatening once again to carry them away. |
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Afiya African afternoon Alhamdulillah Amur Biashara Asha Asha’s askari aunt Baba Bi Asha Bimkubwa boma British brother buibui Bushiri Bwana café called Compact Cassette Dar es Salaam door dressed eyes face father Feldwebel felt Frau friends front gave German officer girl Gujarati Hamza sat hand heard inside Jamila keep Khalifa asked Kinyamwezi Kiswahili knew later laughed listening lived looked Maalim Abdalla Mahiwa merchant mganga mission Mombasa morning mosque mother Mzee Sulemani Nassor Biashara night nodded Oberleutnant ombasha Pascal pastor perhaps porch prayers Ramadhan ruga schutztruppe seemed Shangaan shekhiya silent sitting sleep smiled someone sometimes speak spoke stood stopped stories streets Sungura sure talking tell thought told took Topasi town troops turned Uncle Ilyas village voice waited walked warehouse wife woman words workshop Würzburg yard Zanzibar