Aminatta was a judge for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2004 and her memoir The Devil that Danced on the Water was a BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week' and runner-up for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2003 Her most recent novel Ancestor Stones was published in several languages and received widespread critical acclaim For fans of Chimamanda Ngoza Adichie, Arundhati Roy and Amy Tan.
Forna's second novel after her well-regarded memoir, The Devil That Danced on the Water, takes place in Sierra Leone and weaves stories, past and present, involving Kai, a young surgeon; Elias, an older patient; and Adrian, a British psychiatrist. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Aminatta Forna was born in Scotland and raised in West Africa. Her first book, The Devil that Danced on the Water, was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2003. Her novel Ancestor Stones was winner of the 2008 Hurston Wright Legacy Award, the Literaturpreis in Germany, was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and selected by the Washington Post as one of the most important books of 2006. In 2007 Vanity Fair named Aminatta as one of Africa's most promising new writers. Aminatta has also written for magazines and newspapers, radio and television, and presented television documentaries on Africa's history and art. Aminatta Forna lives in London with her husband.
'A writer of great talent and courage' Monica Ali 'An intricate tapestry of betrayal, tragedy and loss ... an affecting, passionate and intelligent novel about the redemptive power of love and storytelling' Daily Telegraph 'Let us hope that it takes its place where it deserves to be; not at the top of the pile of "African Literature" but outside any category altogether - and at the top of award shortlists' The Times 'Intelligent, engrossing and beautifully crafted' Daily Mail
'A writer of great talent and courage' Monica Ali 'An intricate tapestry of betrayal, tragedy and loss ... an affecting, passionate and intelligent novel about the redemptive power of love and storytelling' Daily Telegraph 'Let us hope that it takes its place where it deserves to be; not at the top of the pile of "African Literature" but outside any category altogether - and at the top of award shortlists' The Times 'Intelligent, engrossing and beautifully crafted' Daily Mail
Forma, recipient of a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Ancestor Stones, returns to Africa's troubled conscience in this admirable if uneven outing. Adrian Lockheart is a well-meaning English psychologist who embarks on a temporary post at a Sierra Leone hospital intending to modernize treatment of the long-neglected schizophrenics, transients, and scarred victims of civil war who walk the hospital grounds. He soon meets his match in the elderly ex-professor Elias Cole, who speaks eloquently of his country's turbulent history-and also of his passion for the wife of a more radically minded colleague whose eventual disappearance Cole may be implicated in. As the holes in Elias's story widen, Adrian falls for a patient's daughter and into conflict with a surgeon, and ripples from the unexamined past threaten the present. Yet Forma's material doesn't measure up to the book's length. The book's prolixity, combined with scenes that drag or come off as forced, certainly doesn't ruin the experience, but it does occasionally glut what amounts to a heartening cry for moral responsibility in the thick of maddening injustice. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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