Aminatta Forna
Auteur de The Memory of Love
A propos de l'auteur
Œuvres de Aminatta Forna
The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu [2009 documentary] 2 exemplaires
The Last Vet 1 exemplaire
The Angel of Mexico City 1 exemplaire
Tanz mit dem Teufel - Meine afrikanische Kindheit 1 exemplaire
Oeuvres associées
New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent (2019) — Contributeur — 91 exemplaires, 1 critique
Oxtravels: Meetings with Remarkable Travel Writers (2011) — Contributeur — 57 exemplaires, 3 critiques
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Date de naissance
- 1964
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- UK
- Lieu de naissance
- Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK
- Lieux de résidence
- Glasgow, Scotland, UK
London, England, UK
Sierra Leone
California, USA - Études
- University College London|Law
University of California, Berkeley|Harkness Fellow - Professions
- writer
documentary maker
professor of creative writing - Relations
- Westcott, Scott (husband)
- Organisations
- Royal National Theatre|Board Member
Man Booker International Prize|Judge
Bath Spa University - Prix et distinctions
- Windham–Campbell Literature Prize (2014)
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (2017)
Fellow, Royal Society of Literature - Courte biographie
- Aminatta Forna was born in Scotland, but her family moved to Sierra Leone when she was six months old. Her father, Mohamed Forna, was a physician who became involved in politics. He was imprisoned between 1970 and 1973 and declared an Amnesty Prisoner of Conscience. In 1975, when Aminatta was 11, he was hanged for treason. She later wrote a memoir about her childhood and the conspiracy around her father called [The Devil that Danced on the Water]. She was educated in London and Berkeley, worked for the BBC as a reporter and documentary maker, and published her first book in 2003. She is now a professor and writer.
Membres
Discussions
April-June Theme Read: War and Regions in Conflict à Reading Globally (Février 10)
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna à 75 Books Challenge for 2022 (Février 2022)
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna à Orange January/July (Juillet 2011)
Critiques
At first this is a straightforward story, narrated by Duro, handyman and hunter, as he comes to the aid of an Englishwoman, Laura who is attempting to refurbish her Croatian holiday home. Gradually secrets are unpicked and revealed. Small-town rivalries. Duro's first and best love, Anka. And the atrocities of civil war, and what that does to a community that had previously lived together more or less in harmony. Forna creates a vivid landscape, describes dark secrets, long-festering divisions. This is a rewarding, immersive book whose initial apparently simple story line evolves into something richer and more complex. A book to re-read.… (plus d'informations)
This multi-themed novel impressed me with the depth of the characters and their missions. Attila, a psychiatrist from Ghana who has been working around the globe on hostage situations and helping those caught up in violence and war to recover, travels to London to deliver the keynote address at a major conference. Jane, a biologist specializing in wolves and foxes, has left her ex-husband and son back in Western Massachusetts to research the lives of urban foxes in London. Jane literally collides with Attila on Waterloo Bridge as she is following one of her foxes, and they continue to meet for a week, first coincidentally and then purposefully, as they try to manage their strong attraction to each other. When Attila's niece is taken by immigration police and her ten year old son disappears, he, Jane and a legion of genial local African hotel workers assist in the quest. Simultaneously, Attila's research partner Rosie is withering away from dementia as he puzzles through his shifting ideas about PTSD, his area of expertise. Jane is trying to protect her urban foxes as they seem to be initiating threatening and harmful interactions with humans. And all the while, they are gravitating towards each other, despite Attila's heartache for his wife, who had died suddenly, and Jane's concern about her adult son, who seems to be turning away from her. Their week in London alternates with their back stories, and it all flows together, resolving in a satisfying ending (apart from an awkwardly narrated single sexual episode). This is a truly thoughtful work deserving of deliberate, dedicated attention from the reader.
Quote: "The punishment meted out to Adam and Eve by their creator for eating the forbidden fruit was not to be cast out of Eden, nor the knowledge of their own nakedness, but the gift of an intelligence great enough to be able to imagine their own deaths, the awful foreknowledge all humans possessed, not only in the moment of it happening but for every day of their lives."… (plus d'informations)
Quote: "The punishment meted out to Adam and Eve by their creator for eating the forbidden fruit was not to be cast out of Eden, nor the knowledge of their own nakedness, but the gift of an intelligence great enough to be able to imagine their own deaths, the awful foreknowledge all humans possessed, not only in the moment of it happening but for every day of their lives."… (plus d'informations)
This book takes the reader on a journey through many countries and has a moving timeline which manages to progress the story. As we learn about the lead characters backstories we develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of their actions.
Listes
Prix et récompenses
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Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 14
- Aussi par
- 7
- Membres
- 2,113
- Popularité
- #12,183
- Évaluation
- 4.0
- Critiques
- 143
- ISBN
- 103
- Langues
- 12
- Favoris
- 9
"And there are others still who say love is but a beautiful form of madness."
The Memory of Love is a dual timeline historical fiction set in Sierra Leone in the 1960s and 2000s. The author Aminatta Forne was born in Scotland and raised in Sierra Leone where her father was from. He was executed on trumped up charges when she was only 11. The book is set in a post-war context and deals with both love and trauma. It has been shortlisted for both the Warwick Prize for Writing and the Orange Prize for Fiction and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
British psychologist Adrian Lockheart arrives in Sierra Leone in 2001, after the civil war between government forces and rebel insurgents has ended. The war began in 1991 and left fifty thousand people dead, and 2.5 million displaced. He specialises in PTSD and has been sent there to try and help the Sierra Leoneans process their grief and trauma. Adrian is something of a great white saviour figure, and takes a long time to recognise that he may not actually be wanted there, and that possibly 99% of the population is suffering from what he calls PTSD but they call life. As Forna points out, “War had the effect of encouraging people to try to stay alive. Poverty, too. Survival was simply too hard-won to be given up lightly.”
One of Adrian’s patients is a retired professor Elias Cole whose health is failing. Elias begins to tell the story of his life in the 1960s when he became obsessively enamoured of Saffia, the wife of his colleague Julius. Elias’ obsession has far reaching consequences of betrayal that echo into the next generation.
Adrian also develops a friendship with Kai Mansaray, a local surgeon who also suffers nightmares related to war-time trauma and a broken relationship with Nenebah. Adrian becomes involved with musician Mamakaye despite having a wife and child back in England. This relationship draws the three characters together in an unexpected turn of events.
This was a beautifully written book with well-fleshed out characters. The audio-narration by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
was excellent. My only difficulty was I didn’t like many of them. Elias was entitled and manipulative, Adrian was just meh. The women in the story may have been more likeable, but sadly did not have a voice of their own, their stories being told by the men. I would definitely read another book by this author.… (plus d'informations)