Time and again, I have been waylaid from a book project by a political event. I’ve found myself in protest rallies when I should have been writing. But what do we write about, where do our thoughts come from, if not in response to what is happening in the world? I draw breath from writers who strive to articulate the unspeakable, to get to a deep truth, out of hope for a better world. Afterlives (Riverhead Books, 2022) by Nobel Prize–winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah is the story of the people of East Africa whose lives are torn apart by British and German colonizers in late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Ilyas is kidnapped by German troops as a young boy. When he returns ten years later, he learns that his parents are dead and that he has a sister Afiya, who was given away to another family. Ilyas rescues his sister from her hard life working for a cruel family and tries to ensure that she will have a good life before leaving again to volunteer for the German army fighting the British. Ilyas is never compensated or recognized for his service to Germany. Afiya marries a good man and has a son, but she and her family are haunted by her brother’s ghost. Afterlives dares to return to history to tell the experiences of the colonized people of Africa who fought and died in the wars of European invaders. The pain is so muted in this novel that you can only sense it in your bones days and months after reading.
—Gemini Wahhaj, author of The Children of This Madness (7.13 Books, 2023)