 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Aminatta Forna |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Published | 2010 (Bloomsbury) |
| Publication place | Scotland |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 464 |
| ISBN | 9781408808139 |
| OCLC | 851988400 |
The Memory of Love is a 2010 novel by Aminatta Forna about the experiences of three men in Sierra Leone. In 2022, it was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II. [1]
Set amidst the dawn of peace in Sierra Leone after a decade-long civil war, the lives of Elias Cole, Adrian Lockheart, and Kai Mansaray intersect in a city hospital as they struggle with their turbulent pasts. Elias, a retired history professor, reveals his secrets to Dr. Adrian Lockheart, while memories of the late 1960s shape his fate. Adrian, striving to heal war-traumatized minds, faces challenges as he befriends Kai, an orthopedic surgeon haunted by his own demons. As their stories unfold, old acquaintances resurface, secrets unravel, and relationships are tested, culminating in revelations and attempts at redemption amidst the lingering shadows of the past. "The Memory of Love" intricately intertwines the lives of two generations of Africans, exploring themes of loss, forgiveness, and the enduring impact of history, ultimately delving into the essence of love itself.
The book takes place in Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It begins in 2001, after a long civil war has ended, bringing peace to the country. Most of the story happens in a hospital in the capital city, Freetown. This hospital is where the lives of the main characters—Elias Cole, Adrian Lockheart, and Kai Mansaray—intersect.
The Memory of Love was generally well-received. On The Omnivore , a British aggregator of press reviews, it received an "omniscore" of 4 out of 5. [2]
Maaza Mengiste wrote in The New York Times : "Forna's first work of fiction, 'Ancestor Stones,' was an accomplished collection of interconnected stories. 'The Memory of Love,' equally layered, gives us a stronger, more nuanced voice, a writer more willing to take risks with plot and character. ... She forces us to see past bland categorizations like 'postcolonial African literature,' showing that the world we inhabit reaches beyond borders and ripples out through generations. She reminds us that what matters most is that which keeps us grounded in the place of our choosing. And she writes to expose what remains after all the noise has faded: at the core of this novel is the brave and beating heart, at once vulnerable and determined, unwilling to let go of all it has ever loved." [3] The Guardian reviewer found it "an ambitious and deeply researched novel". [4]
The Memory of Love has also been reviewed by Booklist , [5] BookPage Reviews, [6] Publishers Weekly , [7] Kirkus Reviews , [8] The Daily Telegraph , [9] and The Spectator . [10]
The International Booker Prize is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize, as the Booker Prize was then known, was announced in June 2004. Sponsored by the Man Group, from 2005 until 2015 the award was given every two years to a living author of any nationality for a body of work published in English or generally available in English translation. It rewarded one author's "continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage", and was a recognition of the writer's body of work rather than any one title.
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Aminatta Forna, OBE, is a British writer of Scottish and Sierra Leonean ancestry. Her first book was a memoir, The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest (2002). Since then she has written four novels: Ancestor Stones (2006), The Memory of Love (2010), The Hired Man (2013) and Happiness (2018). In 2021 she published a collection of essays, The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion. (2021), which was a new genre for her.
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Maya Jaggi is a British writer, literary critic, editor and cultural journalist. In the words of the Open University, from which Jaggi received an honorary doctorate in 2012, she "has had a transformative influence in the last 25 years in extending the map of international writing today". Jaggi has been a contributor to a wide range of publications including The Guardian, Financial Times, The Independent, The Literary Review, The Times Literary Supplement, The New York Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, New Statesman, Wasafiri, Index on Censorship, and Newsweek, and is particularly known for her profiles of writers, artists, film-makers, musicians and others. She is also a broadcaster and presenter on radio and television. Jaggi is the niece of actor and food writer Madhur Jaffrey.
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Delia Jarrett-Macauley, also known as Dee Jarrett-Macauley, is a London-based British writer, academic and broadcaster of Sierra Leonean heritage. Her debut novel, Moses, Citizen & Me, won the 2006 Orwell Prize for political writing, the first novel to have been awarded the prize. She has devised and presented features on BBC Radio, as well as being a participant in a range of programmes. As a multi-disciplinary scholar in history, literature and cultural politics, she has taught at Leeds University, Birkbeck, University of London, and other educational establishments, most recently as a fellow in English at the University of Warwick. She is also a business and arts consultant, specialising in organisation development.
The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest is a 2002 book by Aminatta Forna about her childhood and an investigation into the execution of her father, Mohamed Forna. It was serialised as a Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 and was runner-up for the 2003 Samuel Johnson Prize.
Ancestor Stones (2006) is a novel by British writer Aminatta Forna about the experiences of four women in a polygamous family in West Africa.
The Hired Man (2013) is a novel by Scottish-Sierra Leonean writer Aminatta Forna about an Englishwoman, Laura, and her two children who renovate a farmhouse in Croatia with the help of local handyman, Duro. Through their interaction, she reveals and explores local history, including effects of the Yugoslav Wars.
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Sierra Leone–Yugoslavia relations were historical foreign relations between Sierra Leone and now split-up Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Two countries established formal diplomatic relations in 1961. Both countries were member states of the Non-Aligned Movement and cooperated in the United Nations in bridging the Cold War divisions. Two countries reached the peak of their diplomatic relations in cooperation on the issue of Rhodesia.
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Fate and tragedy intertwine in this stunning and powerful portrait of a country in the aftermath of a decade of civil war.
as the novel sweeps from the radical campus politics of the 1960s to the traumatized population of the current day, the prose occasionally drags. The Memory of Love is an ambitious novel, but one that richly rewards the committed reader.
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.
Gravitas distinguishes the ambitious second novel by Forna
Here she [Forna] moves deftly between the enchantments of different narratives: the therapeutic, the confessional, the traumatic – flashbacks, nightmares, hauntings, fugue states where stories are lost or distorted beyond recognition and the sweetly joyous themes of new love, renewal, springing hope, second chances.
Aminatta Forna's magnificent second novel is not really about love. Its themes are far grittier, and all the more compelling for it