|
The Devil That Danced on the Water A Daughter's Quest by Aminatta Forna A Rocky Mountain News Best Book A Boston Globe Best Seller A Book Sense 76 Selection Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize ISBN: 0-8021-4048-3 / ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-4048-7 US $14.00 - 6 x 9, 416 pp - Jan. 2004 |
“A masterpiece that makes sense of senselessness. . . . We could place [Aminatta’s] memoir of Sierra Leone alongside Nega Mezlekia’s Notes from the Hyena’s Belly, about Ethiopia, or Rian Malan’s My Traitor’s Heart, about South Africa. . . . [The Devil That Danced on the Water is] an original work made out of necessity.”—Lorraine Adams, The Washington Post Book World
“Poignant and passionate. . . . [Forna’s] father was taken from their home and executed in a government attempt to quash democracy. But this isn’t a political book. In the first part of this moving memoir, Forna brings her family to life, in both their idyllic ups . . . and incongruous downs. In the second [part] . . . she discovers the story of an entire nation’s demise.”—Allison Lynn, People
“Powerful. . . . At once impassioned, lucid, and understandably enraged, The Devil That Danced on the Water illuminates the troubled, tragic history of a country and a continent. It helps us understand how the faraway events we’ve grown used to seeing on the nightly news—the violent coups, famines, mass murders, and migrations—affect the lives of individual men and women, of parents and children, of families just like our own. . . . [This] book is populated with vibrant characters.”—Francine Prose, O, The Oprah Magazine
“Unforgettable . . . The Devil That Danced on the Water stands as a shining example of what autobiography can be: harrowing, illuminating and thoughtful. . . . Reminds us of the need to face our own lost innocence—then move on so we can work for a better future.”—Ayesha Court, USA Today
“A remarkable personal story of lies, greed and corruption amidst the cultivation of fear and violence that marked an increasingly malevolent dictatorship. . . . Provides one of the best views into the kinds of politics that make otherwise prosperous countries like Sierra Leone into metaphors for all that is wrong with a continent beset with more than its share of misrule. . . . Forna offers a human account of Sierra Leone’s tragedy that does much to remedy a media image of a faraway country that suffers a bizarre fate at the hands of inscrutable rebels.”—William Reno, The Chicago Tribune
“[A] lucid, exacting memoir.”—The New Yorker
“In this heart-breaking memoir of Forna’s quest to find the truth about her father, she outlines the grim prospects of a poor and largely illiterate populace that still suffers the legacies of colonial exploitation, the misguided concept of ‘benign dictatorship,’ and a brutal civil war.”—Emily Mead, Entertainment Weekly
“Reminiscent of Jung Chang’s acclaimed Wild Swans. . . . Forna provides a peek into the black hole of time, giving a view of so much of Africa that is mythical, ephemeral and intangible. . . . Egregious episodes of political genocide and everyday barbarism—all met with a resounding global disregard—are interwoven through Forna’s fond childhood memories. . . . [The Devil That Danced on the Water is] the story not only of Africa’s political turmoil but also of its promise and potential.”—Charlotte Moore, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Forna capably fills in the events of Sierra Leone’s complex and confusing history. . . . When Forna loses herself in the bittersweet memories of her childhood, her descriptions dance on the page. . . . By sharing the travails of her vivid journey, she casts light into the darkness of Sierra Leone’s history.”—Heather Hewett, Christian Science Monitor
“Riveting. . . . Memoir seems to soft a word for Aminatta Forna’s The Devil That Danced on the Water. . . . The intimacy of a child’s domestic world contrasts acutely with the looming political backdrop. . . . Mohamed Sorie Forna was the kind of young man upon whom a society’s hopes are built.”—Eve MacSweeney, Vogue
“Poignant. . . . Stunning. . . . Amazing. . . . What isn’t hard is to feel her deep sense of disappointment about what happened to her father and her country.”—Steve Galpern, The Rocky Mountain News
“Riveting [and] fascinating. . . . As Forna gleans bits of truth from a mass of lies . . . her father gains new definition, and the story gains new power.”—Jay Goldin, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
“More gripping than a political thriller. . . . The Devil That Danced on the Water is Aminatta Forna’s attempt to make coherent a personal fate inextricably tied to the fate of a nation.”—Julie Brickman, San Diego Union-Tribune
“An evocative, disturbing mixture of memoir and investigative reporting. . . . [Forna’s] recreation of the country she knew as a child and the father she idolized is deft and moving.”—Sarah Goodyear, Time Out New York
“[A] moving account. . . . A vivid history of [Forna’s] years as a child moving back and forth between Africa and the UK, borne on the shifting wind of her father’s changing status in Sierra Leone politics.”—K.A. Dilday, New York Sun
“An exposé as gripping as it is devastating.” —Vicki Cameron, East Bay Express
“Harrowing. . . . Forna writes with a compelling mix of distance and anguish, intent on explaining her father’s death and reclaiming his memory. Lush descriptions of her idyllic childhood provide eerie counter-point to chilling depictions of the hell Sierra Leone had become upon her return in recent years. . . . Reminiscent of Isabelle Allende’s House of Spirits, Forna’s work is a powerfully and elegantly written mix of complex history, riveting memoir and damning exposé.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Forna’s stunning memoir is both a tribute to her brave father and an important look at the sad state of politics in Sierra Leone.”—Kristine Huntley, Booklist
“An important work. . . . More than a tale of vindication, this book is filled with powerful descriptions and moving details. . . . Highly recommended.”—A.O. Edmonds, Library Journal
“An extraordinary and gripping story. . . . Forna’s book glows with compassion. A modern classic, of which her courageous father would have been proud.”—Peter Godwin, author of Mukiwa
“An engrossing account of pain, love and discovery that had the capacity not only to make me understand but also to move me to tears.”—Gillian Slovo, author of Every Secret Thing
“I had tears in my eyes almost the whole way through, although it is the least sentimental of books. . . . Forna manages, quite brilliantly, to evoke not only all the honor and pity that is in her family’s story, but its beauty and tenderness too.”—Katie Hickman, author of Daughters of Britannia
“This is a book of quite extraordinary power and beauty. Aminatta Forna has excavated not only her memory but the hidden recesses of the heart.”—Fergal Keane
“A searing indictment of African tyranny mingled with bittersweet childhood memories.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Impossible to forget . . . An obsessive, driven, refreshing book about Africa, despotism and exile. It is also a beautifully drawn portrait of childhood. . . . A memorial teeming with life, anger, love.”—Christopher Hope, The Independent
“Devastating . . . [Forna] writes so well. . . . Her book deserves to go on the shelf next to Malan’s [My Traitor’s Heart]. It is excellent.”—Aidan Hartley, The Literary Review
“Remarkable . . . Extraordinary . . . In writing this book [Forna] has acted her part well. She has lifted out of herself the emotional and cultural world of her childhood and represented it in scenes of startling beauty and tragedy. Few books merit being called courageous; this one does.”—Rachel Cusk, The Evening Standard
“Gives a more personal framework for understanding the horror of the 1990s in the linked wars of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea . . . [Forna’s] interviews with broken men are extremely moving, and tell everything of the world that vanished with her father.”—Victoria Brittain, The Guardian
“[A] moving, impressive account . . . [Forna’s] harrowing description of her struggle in adulthood to establish the truth of [her father’s] death makes enormously compelling and painful reading.”—Alex Clark, Sunday Times (London)
“[An] engaging memoir . . . It can also be read as a detective story. . . . The observations have an appropriate strangeness and wonder, and there are moments of humor. . . . An impressive contribution to the literature of post-colonial Africa.”—Jason Cowley, Times (London)
“Forna eloquently describes her processing of her father's historic struggles as an activist in