Other Names, Other Places
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Fairlight Books
Published:18th Jul '24
Should be back in stock very soon
Mama, Baba... and Mrs Brown.
Wayward Nessie is caught between cultures: too English for her Tunisian parents, yet not 'white enough' or 'African enough' to fit in with any of the groups at school. Her father is determined to make the family 'respectable', while Mama is lost in nostalgia for the country she left behind. Even Nessie's sister Sherine, who appears to find it easiest to slip between identities, faces struggles of her own.
Then there is the charismatic Mrs Brown, who befriended her parents on their arrival in England. She soon becomes the glue holding the family together, until one day she disappears from their lives as quickly as she arrived.
Years later, struggling with patterns of self-sabotage, Nessie returns home to confront the mysteries of her childhood. Forced to re-examine everything she thought she knew, she begins to wonder: what really happened between her parents and Mrs Brown?
'Ola Mustapha revels in the confusions and squashed experiences of growing up that most would rather forget. This is a novel of rootlessness and family secrets, which tells its truth with briskness and deftness, aiming straight at the reader's heart' -Leila Aboulela, author of River Spirit
'An immersive and gorgeous read' -Eva Verde, author of Lives Like Mine
'Mustapha's spare, lucid prose explores a complex web of displacement as her main character carves a hard path between cultures and little-understood family loyalties. A searching, honest and evocative book' -Fiona Vigo Marshall, author of The House of Marvellous Books
'An impressive and layered novel, by a writer to watch out for' -Polis Loizou, author of A Good Year
'Ola Mustapha's storytelling is vigorous and complex...Its rich explorations of culture, identity, and family secrets are at once relatable and revelatory' -Phoebe Walker, author of Temper
ISBN: 9781914148316
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
304 pages