‘A unique, powerful voice in African literature’ – catch Iman Verjee at Open Book
More about the book!
Iman Verjee will be a guest at the Open Book Festival in Cape Town from 6-10 September.
Verjee won the 2012 Peters Fraser & Dunlop/City University Prize for Fiction for her debut novel In Between Dreams, which she wrote while completing an MA in Creative Writing at City University in London. Prior to that she studied psychology at the University of Alberta in Canada, where she lived for six years. She now lives in Nairobi, Kenya. Who Will Catch Us As We Fall is her latest novel.
How do you make a life for yourself when all you have are lies?
Growing up in a sleepy town with parents who adore her, it’s difficult to understand why Frances is the way she is: friendless, manipulative and at times very cruel. But once she leaves home for boarding school, a different Frances begins to emerge as she starts to question everything that she had accepted as normal: her beloved father, her overbearing mother, her grandmother who refuses to speak – her whole white-picket fence life.
When uncomfortable truths finally emerge, will the family be able to survive?
An epic story of love, loss and identity in contemporary Kenya
Growing up in the Nairobi of the 90s, a seething boiling pot of racial tension and conflicting cultural taboos, Leena and Jai are raised to believe in a Kenya full of possibility and potential. But as they come of age and venture into a world of underground activists beyond the confines of their tight-knit East Asian community and closely guarded, gated compound, they start to see a country divided by deep ethnic allegiances and on the brink of something very sinister. Soon Leena and Jai find themselves entangled in a shady world of crooked policemen, seedy salesmen, prostitutes, and bohemian artists. As the city tightens its grip, so begins a dangerous game of corruption and conspiracy, where rebellions simmer, and a tangled web of power unravels as dark forces collide and disturbing revelations surface.
A powerful tale of love and politics in contemporary Nairobi, Who Will Catch Us As We Fall depicts a Kenya on the cusp of change in all its complexity. Through two of the most memorable and remarkable characters in contemporary African fiction, Iman Verjee has penned a moving portrait of a family torn apart by national politics and prejudice, yet still painfully tethered together.
Categories Fiction International
Tags Iman Verjee In Between Dreams Open Book Festival Who Will Catch Us As We Fall
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