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December 15, 2020
‘Tis the season for gift-giving, and perhaps there’s no better year than 2020 to send your loved ones a book to keep them company as they stay at home waiting their turn for a vaccine.
First in our holiday gift guide series this year are BIG books. Whether you call them tomes, whoppers, or doorstoppers, all five of these books are over 500 pages in length. They’d be perfect for that friend who you know would rather bury their nose in a book than join you for happy hour on Zoom.
560 pages
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi returns us to the myths and folklore of Uganda in her second novel, A GIRL IS A BODY OF WATER. But this time, she weaves these ancient tales with indigenous and so-called "modern" feminist ideas. You won't want to miss a single step of Kirabo's (very long) coming-of-age journey. (Tin House Books/2020)
544 pages
A terrible virus has decimated human life. Thirteen-year old Nico Storm and his father, Willem, attempt to found a community for survivors. But after such a global disaster, what does civilization even mean any more? Narrated by Nico after the murder of his father, South African author Deon Meyer's thriller is at once a coming-of-age narrative and a tale of survival. (Atlantic Monthly Press/2017)
576 pages
1904. On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there is a colonial settlement called The Old Drift. In a smoky room at the hotel across the river, an Old Drifter named Percy M. Clark, foggy with fever, makes a mistake that entangles the fates of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy. (Hogarth/2019)
544 pages
A century ago, an astronomer discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star. She predicted that one day humans would travel there to build a utopia. Today, ten astronauts are leaving everything behind to find it. Four are veterans of the twentieth century’s space-race. And six are teenagers who’ve trained for this mission most of their lives. (Gallery/Saga Press/2019)
1056 pages
A veritable omnibus of works by over two hundred women of African descent. This remarkable anthology features letters, essays, short stories, speeches, and many other genres of writing by women from all corners of the globe who were putting pen to paper before the twentieth century and throughout. Even if you read only one piece of writing a day, you'll have something to read for at least two-thirds of the year.
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