Author: Scholastique Mukasonga
Narrator: Jordan Stump, Virtic Emil Brown
Unabridged: 3 hr 24 min
Format: Digital Audiobook
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Published: 06/28/2022
Genre: Fiction - Historical
The stories in Igifu summon phantom memories of Rwanda and radiate with the fierce ache of a survivor. Scholastique Mukasonga’s five autobiographical stories rend a glorious Rwanda from the obliterating force of recent history, conjuring the noble cows of her home or the dew-swollen grass they graze on. In the title story, five-year-old Colomba tells of a merciless overlord, hunger or “igifu,” gnawing away at her belly. She searches for sap at the bud of a flower, scraps of sweet potato at the foot of her parent’s bed, or a few grains of sorghum in the floor sweepings. Igifu becomes a dizzying hole in her stomach, a plunging abyss into which she falls. In a desperate act of preservation, Colomba’s mother gathers enough sorghum to whip up a nourishing porridge, bringing Colomba back to life. This elixir courses through each story, a balm to soothe the pains of those so ferociously fighting for survival. The writing eclipses the great gaps of time and memory; in one scene she is a child sitting squat with a jug of sweet, frothy milk, and in another she is an exiled teacher, writing down lists of her dead. As in all her work, Mukasonga sits up with them, her witty and beaming beloved.
'An author who makes history come gloriously alive' The Times 'Meticulous research and strong storytelling' Woman & Home 'A sumptuous ride' Toby Clements, Daily Telegraph **********************Eleanor of Aquitaine A loving mother. A betrayed w...
A raw, heart-breaking yet ultimately uplifting novel about a young woman cut down in her prime, and of the woman who brings her back to life.***TOP TEN KINDLE BESTSELLER***'Compelling. Poignant. Haunting. Heart wrenching. Just beautiful. Everyone n...
Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. Sayuri's story begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old with unusual blue-gray eyes...
Available for the first time as an exclusive eBook in this original Outlander novella, Diana Gabaldon reveals what really happened to Roger MacKenzie Wakefield’s parents. Orphaned during World War II, Roger believed that his mother died during...
Based on a little-known true story, from award-winning author Siobhan Daiko comes a tale of love and survival against all the odds set in Hong Kong at the start of the Pacific War.In the spring of 1939, dashing young William Burton and the...
"One of the Best Books of 2016" - Open Letters Monthly; Finalist, 2016 Novel of the Year - Underground Book Reviews; Semi-Finalist - 2017 M.M. Bennetts Award?All Jane Seymour wants is a husband; but when she catches the eye of a volatile king, she i...
#1 New York Times bestselling author Diana Gabaldon returns to her Outlander universe in “The Space Between,” an irresistible novella brimming with adventure, history, and suspense—and available for the first time as a standalone e...
Return to a world of secrets, love, and spies this historical novel of epic romance, dangerous deceit, and gripping adventure in the Middle Eastern front of the Great War, the second book of The Windswept WWI Saga by author Annabelle McCormack. ...
Henry Fleming has joined the Union army because of his romantic ideas of military life, but soon finds himself in the middle of a battle against a regiment of Confederate soldiers. Terrified, Henry deserts his comrades. Upon returning to his regimen...