Book of the Week and Bibliography - Aminatta Forna, The Memory of Love

The Memory of Love is a second novel by Aminatta Forna, who was born in Glasgow, raised in Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom and now divides her time between London and Sierra Leone. She worked as a journalist for BBC Television (1989-99) and is now a full-time writer. She came to prominence following the publication of The Devil that Danced on Water in 2002, a memoir of her dissident father, who was executed in Sierra Leone. It was runner up for Britain's most prestigious non-fiction award, the Samuel Johnson Prize, in 2003, and was serialised on BBC Radio. Her first novel, Ancestor Stone,s was a New York Times Editor's Choice book, selected by the Washington Post as one of the Best Novels of 2006 and one of The Listener Magazine's Best 10 Books of 2006. In 2007 Aminatta was named by Vanity Fair as one of Africa's most promising new writers and her work has been translated into nine languages. The Memory of Love will be published in early April. Early reviews are very positive and signed copies can currently be ordered at cover price.

“In an African city, an elderly and unwell man, Elias Cole, a former lecturer now living alone with his manservant, Babagaleh, reflects on his past. Carefully recorded in a series of now-frayed notebooks are memories of youth in England, the details of an obsession: Saffia, a woman he loved, and Julius, her charismatic, unpredictable husband, a colleague of Elias' at the university. Adrian Lockheart is a psychologist new to this foreign land, struggling with the intensity of the heat, dirt and dust of a country with which he has only tenuous connection. He is here to help, but frustrated by his inability to do so - until an encounter with a local woman suffering some unidentifiable form of madness gives him purpose. These two men are brought together by a letter from Elias to Adrian requesting his professional services. The relationship which develops between them explores the full extent of Elias' involvement with Saffia and Julius, and some unsettling truths which Adrian himself must address. A stunning novel about understanding our pasts and an examination of the very nature of obsessive love.”


Bibliography:

Mother of all Myths, HarperCollins, London, 1998
The Devil that Danced on Water, HarperCollins, London, 2002
Ancestor Stones, Bloomsbury, London, 2006
The Memory of Love, Bloomsbury, London, 2010