So the plans you had with your best friend to escape to an island for the holidays have been scrambled by the pandemic. Or maybe you’re both still saving up for one. While you wait for the day you’re able to be surrounded by nothing by sand and sea, why not send your friend one of these six books set on an island off the east or west coasts of Africa instead? Sure, these books aren’t exactly the equivalent of sipping a piña colada under a palm tree. But we think they’ll leave your friend with richer, deeper, insights into island life.
Brittle Paper Gift Guide: Books for the Bestie You Were Planning an Island Escapade with
December 16, 2020
The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo
The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo
176 pages
Senhor da Silva Araújo is a prominent, honorable figure in Cape Verde. When he dies, he leaves a memoir that reveals shocking things about himself and the island's community. With quiet humor, Almeida captures the quirks, charms, and conventions of Cape Verdean society.
Silence of the Chagos
Silence of the Chagos
178 pages
The Chagos Archipelago are a group of islands in the Indian Ocean whose sovereignty is still in dispute between the UK and Mauritius. Patel's novel explores the impact of this unending conflict on Chagossians while immersing readers in Chagossian culture as it follows Charlesia, a woman whose life is uprooted when she was forced to leave the island of Diego Garcia for Mauritius.
Tropic of Violence
Tropic of Violence
160 pages
Moïse, abandoned at birth by his mother, a refugee from Comoros, is adopted by Marie, a nurse in Mayotte — an island located between Mozambique and Madagascar. When Marie dies, Moïse, now thirteen, is set adrift, and becomes involved with the island's gangs. Narrated by a cast of characters, Appanah's novel sheds light on the refugee crisis and societal inequalities that beleaguer a seemingly idyllic island.
Eve Out of Her Ruins
Eve Out of Her Ruins
160 pages
A heartrending novel that tracks the lives of four young Mauritians as they navigate the uncertainties of their identities and sexualities. There's Eve, who finds power in "trading" her body; Savita, Eve's protective best friend; Saadiq, a would-be-poet in love with Eve; and Clélio, a friend of Saadiq's who is waiting for the day he leaves for France. Set in an impoverished area of Mauritius, Devi's polyphonic novel explores another side of an island known chiefly for its touristic beauty.
The Dragonfly Sea
The Dragonfly Sea
512 pages
Owour's lyrical novel introduces readers to the rhythm of life on Pate island through the eyes of Ayaana, a young girl of partial Chinese ancestry. Even as she travels away from the island across the Indian Ocean, Ayaana learns of the manifold geographical connections that form her heritage — the island being an historically important trading site in ancient Persian, Arab, Indian, and Chinese maritime routes.
Beyond the Rice Fields
Beyond the Rice Fields
368 pages
Set in nineteenth-century Madagascar, Naivo's novel, the first from the island to be translated into English, is at once an historical novel and a love story between Tsito, a slave, and his mistress, Fara. Through shifting between Tsito and Fara's perspectives, Naivo plunges the reader into the island's history of slavery and the upheavals to Malagasy society brought about by the arrival of British missionaries and French industrialists.
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