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'amaBooks is an independent publisher set up in 2000 to promote contemporary Zimbabwean writing by giving unpublished writers an opportunity to be published, as well as promoting more established writers. They currently have 25 published books - collections of short stories and novels on comtemporary Zimbabwe, as well as poetry and titles on Zimbabwean culture. 


I've recently started reading books by Zimbabwean authors. I thoroughly enjoyed The Hairdresser of Harare and The Boy Next Door and I am currently reading Nervous Conditions. Obviously in my eyes, based on these books, Zimbabwean literature is amazing. A publisher promoting local Zimbabwean authors and giving previously unpublished authors an opportunity to be published makes me smile. They're website is also pretty cool. It gives details on their books, writers and where you can get their books, which are available both inside and outside Zimbabwe.  For more on 'amaBooks you can either check out their website or their blog. 


Here are some of the wonderful books they publish.


 
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The Boy Next Door, Irene Sabatini's debut novel, is a love story set in Zimbabwe. It's divided into 4 parts, starting in the early 1980s and ending in the late 1990s. 


Part One (1980s) - The boy next door, seventeen year old Ian Mckenzie, has been arrested for setting his stepmother on fire. It is here we meet fourteen year old Lindiwe Bishop.  In the midst of a country transforming (from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe), Lindiwe is fascinated by the (white) boy next door. Lindiwe herself is 'coloured' (mixed race) - her mother black and father colored. In between her fascination with Ian, we read about her family life (her parents loveless marriage, her war vet uncle) and her school life (her experience of being one of the few 'coloreds' in an all-white school, the one friend she makes in the school, Brigette) in Bulawayo, the second city in Zimbabwe. Less than two years after the book begins, the charges are dropped, Ian is released and an unlikely friendship develops between Lindiwe and Ian. At this point in the book I wasn't quite sure how I felt about the characters. Ian said what he wanted and how he felt while Lindiwe was shy, sensitive, and introverted. 


Part Two (Early 1990s) - We meet Lindiwe again, 5 or 6 or 7 years later, she's now in university and Ian is a photojournalist working in South Africa. They kept in touch over the years and meet again in Harare. Despite the length of time apart, those feelings are still there. Ian is also still the same - he says what he wants and how he feels and Lindiwe, while slightly more outspoken than her younger self, is still very much introverted and still in awe of Ian. It is in this part, we discover a secret that Lindiwe has been keeping for years, but one I am not going to spill as it changes the tone of the book, as well as Lindiwe and Ian's relationship.


Part Three (Mid1990s) and Part Four (Late 1990s) is where I really began to start enjoying the book. Ian and Lindiwe are now sort of together (although they never refer each other as being each other's partners) and other secrets are revealed. In between their love story, Irene Sabatini also keeps us in the loop of the changes Zimbabwe has experienced during this time - the politics, the changing economy, the military, the racial violence, and what it's like to be 'colored'.  It is hard to write about the second half of the book without giving too much away but in this part we not only see Zimbabwe changing, but also Lindiwe and Ian, both individually and as a couple. 


I love the way Irene Sabatini writes about Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city. I have never been to Zimbabwe, and if I'm honest until I read this book I only really knew about Harare. Her depiction of Bulawayo gave me an insight into what it must have been like in the years the book was set.  I also love how some Zimbawean (or maybe Southern African) phrases are interjected into the book without any need for translation, such as lekker (which I believe might mean cool) and lightie (which I believe means young/young person).


The one thing that simultaneously frustrated and made me smile was Ian and Lindiwe's relationship. I wasn't too sure about Lindiwe or Ian initially - I liked them, I didn't like them; I liked Lindiwe, I didn't like Ian; and then I liked Ian but I didn't like Lindiwe. As I read, and the characters began to develop and I got to know them more, I realised that these are just two people, with differing points of views in a racially divided society, trying to have a relationship. They are flawed, but who isn't; and their relationship isn't perfect, but whose is. Yet, they manage to be together in their racially divided, politically charged world.


My review is a bit longer than usual, but that's because the book is quite long and covers a lot. Despite its length (it's about 400 pages) and the different issues it covers, it is so simple in its complexity. It was also surprisingly quick to read.


It took me a while, but I grew to love this book and would definitely recommend it. 

4 out of 5 stars.
13:17 1 Comments
I first heard about This September Sun around the middle of last year on one of my many missions to discover new reads. It was published in 2009 by amaBooks, an independent Zimbabwean publisher. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to get it so I forgot about it and went on to the next one. 


Imagine my joy at discovering that Parthian Books (an independent UK publisher) are launching it in the UK. The official launch date is May 2012. Obviously I'm happy because it means I'm now one step closer to finally reading this book (you will be surprised how difficult it is to get a book written by a Zimbabwean (or any other African) author in Nigeria). Other than my own personal (and selfish) reasons, it's also just great to know that bit by bit contemporary African literature is becoming more accessible and available in certain places outside of Africa, especially one that was first published by an African publisher. 


Here's a synopsis of This September Sun:


Ellie is a shy girl growing up in post-Independence Zimbabwe, longing for escape from the confines of small-town life. When she eventually moves to Britain, her wish seems to have come true. But life there is not all she imagined. And when her grandmother Evelyn is brutally murdered, a set of diaries are uncovered – spilling out family secrets and recounting a young Evelyn's passionate and dangerous affair with a powerful married man.

In the light of new discoveries, Ellie begins to re-evaluate her relationship with her grandmother, and must face up to some truths about herself in the process. Set against the backdrop of a country in change, Ellie – burdened by the memories and the misunderstandings of the past – must also find a way to move forward in her own romantic endeavours.
03:09 1 Comments
One place I know I would have loved to be at was the Jaipur Literature Festival, where Teju Cole, Ben Okri and Taiye Selasi were in attendance. Ben Okri was in conversation with Chandras Chaudhury (author of Arzee the Dwarf) about his book The Famished Road, which I only read about a quarter of when I was a teenager because it really scared me. I still remember which part I stopped reading, but I really should pick it up again (I am older and it can't be that scary). There were other panels like "The Weather in Africa" with Teju Cole, Taiye Selasi and Hisham Matar and "The Arab Spring". 


The one panel I would have loved to attend was "The Afropolitans". This was a panel with Ben Okri and Teju Cole in conversations with Taiye Selasi talking about, amongst other things - transforming Africa, the role of the writer in today's Africa, what constitutes an African writer, what is an 'Afropolitan', the power of writing, the endurance of The Heart of Darkness, and the issue of language and writing - writing in an African language or not and the societies being left behind when books are written in languages other than English. It was a really interesting panel and I loved when Ben Okri said "there is no such thing as African writing - there is good writing and bad writing". I especially loved when Taiye Selasi asked "Where are you from?" because that is a question I've never been fully able to answer (satisfactorily), or as Taiye Selasi said "in one word". It's nice to know that I'm not the only one that can't really answer that question. 


Read about The Afropolitans in Jaipur here. There's also a video towards the end of the article with Taiye Selasi talking about one of the main challenges in writing about Africa. 


Watch the panel here, with Teju Cole and Ben Okri reading excerpts from their books Open City and A Time for New Dreams before they start talking about African writing today.  
                             
 
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It's no secret, I am a Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie fan. So imagine my excitement at discovering she is going to be releasing a new book in the near future. The scheduled release date is May 2013 - so so far away (although I have seen some places say 2012). I'm really hoping it's 2012 but till then, here's a synopsis of Americanah. I can't wait!!!



'Americanah' is the irreverent term used in Nigeria for people who have become Americanized, who go to America and return with a different accent and a different taste in food and an exaggerated sense of superiority.

As teenagers in Lagos, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are fleeing the country if they can. The self-assured Ifemelu departs for America. There she suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.

Thirteen years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a blogger. But after so long apart and so many changes, will they find the courage to meet again, face to face?

Fearless, gripping, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story of love and expectation set in today’s globalized world.


                                                        - Updated synopsis from Harper Collins
23:13 7 Comments
In the spirit of Valentine's, I decided to make a list of some African books that share the common theme of interracial love/relationships. Maru the tale of a relationship between Maru, an African village tribal leader and Margaret, an orphaned Masarwa girl in Botswana, Scarlet Song about the daughter of a French Diplomat and the son of a poor Muslim family in Senegal, Seasons of Migration to the North, which centres on Mustapha and his interracial relationships during the colonial period, The PickUp about a white South African woman who meets and falls in love with an illegal Arab immigrant, Occasion For Loving about a love affair between a black man and a white woman in a time when such a union was illegal, My Son's Story about a black South African family ravaged by their father's affair with a white woman, The Madona of Excelsior, a story of love across South Africa's colour lines, The Association of Foreign Spouses a story of white European women moving to 1980s Ghana with their Ghanian husbands, and The Boy Next Door about a black woman and white man in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Happy Valentines. 




    
20:52 2 Comments
Today I want to celebrate the amazing female Ghanian writers out there like Ama Ata Aidoo and Amma Darko, who are two of the most significant woman writers of contemporary Ghana. 



 

 


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Kachifo Limited is an independent publishing house in Lagos, Nigeria created in 2004 to "tell our own stories". They are publishers of Farafina Books, Prestige Books and Farafina Magazine (2004 - 2009). Through Farafina Books they publish fiction, coffee table, general interest and children's books, and we get contemporary African writing and amazing authors like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ben Okri, and Ngugi wa Thiong'O. They also established Farafina Trust, which aims to promote literature and literary skills in Africa. All in all, a pretty amazing publishing house working to revive reading and book culture.



Here are some of the wonderful works they publish and you can find out more about Kachifo on their website. 



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About me

Founded in 2011, bookshy represents two things: the young me who was so shy I escaped through books, and the older me whose shelf is always one book shy of being full.

bookshy is a space where I celebrate, promote and recognise contemporary African literature - although sometimes I go back in time to commemorate the greats. It is about the books I love, the books I have read and the books that I am dying to read.

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      • The State of African Publishing: 'amaBooks Publisher
      • Book Review: Irene Sabatini's 'The Boy Next Door'
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