The Book of Memory

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Memory is an albino woman languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she has been convicted of murder As part of her appeal, her lawyer insists that she write down what happened as she remembers it As her story unfolds, Memory reveals that she has been tried and convicted for the murder of Lloyd Hendricks, her adopted father But who was Lloyd Hendricks Why does Memory feel no remorse for his death And did everything happen exactly as she remembers In The Book of Memory, Petina Gappah has created a uniquely slippery narrator forthright, acerbically funny, and with a complicated relationship to the truth Moving between the townships of the poor and the suburbs of the rich, and between the past and the present, Gappah weaves a compelling tale of love, obsession, the relentlessness of fate, and the treachery of memory. Download The Book of Memory – kino-fada.fr 3.5 Interesting premise for this well written book Memory is an albino black, convicted of the murder of the white man who raised her Given the death sentence she waits, incarcerated in the maximum security prison in Harare, Zimbabwe She is our narrator and this is her story.This is not a quick read, nor is it a fast moving story Rather it is the story of a young woman and how she got from there, a home with siblings and a mentally ill mother and a father she adored, to here, awaiting death 3.5 Interesting premise for this well written book Memory is an albino black, convicted of the murder of the white man who raised her Given the death sentence she waits, incarcerated in the maximum security prison in Harare, Zimbabwe She is our narrator and this is her story.This is not a quick read, nor is it a fast moving story Rather it is the story of a young woman and how she got fro...When we meet Memory, the narrator of this novel, she is in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Zimbabwe, having been found guilty of murder From the start, we are told that she did not murder her adopted father, Lloyd Hendricks, and she is writing down her life story as part of her appeal against her death sentence In effect, Memory s life has two parts the first nine years of her childhood, spent at 1486 Mharapara Street and then the next nine years of her life, spent with Lloyd Hendricks When we meet Memory, the narrator of this novel, she is in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Zimbabwe, having been found guilty of murder From the start, we are told that she did not murder her adopted father, Lloyd Hendricks, and she is writing down her life story as part of her appeal against her death sentence In eff...When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching they are your familyJim ButcherPetina Gappah, a Zimbabwean author, has penned a deeply moving literary fiction, The Book of Memory that narrates the life story of a Zimbabwean convict on a death row charged for murdering her adoptive father, who was once sold to this man by her own parents and how she evolved into a different person while living with her new family and how easily she could forget her own famWhen everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching they are your familyJim ButcherPetina Gappah, a Zimbabwean author, has penned a deeply moving literary fiction, The Book of Memory that narrates the life story of a Zimbabwean convict on a death row charged for murdering her adoptive father, who was once sold to this man by her own parents and how she evolved into a different person while living with her new family and how easily she could forget her own family and how her happiness get destroyed because of her adoptive father This is her story, mostly written from her early memories in childhood to teenage hood to an adult to figure out what the lawyers missed in the prosecution of her adoptive father s murder.Synopsis The story you have asked me to tell begins not with the ignominious ugliness of Lloyd s death but on a long ago day in April when the sun seared my blistered face and I was n...A DNF, unfortunately.3 stars And this book started out so well.An albino woman imprisoned for the death of the man who allegedly bought her, at 9 years old The man who raised her and gave her every opportunity a good education and with many steps up in her social status Memory, is on death row the only woman on death row in Zimbabwe She is charged with writing the account of her life and the murder It tells the back story of not only her life, but that of her family Memory is an unreliable narrator For 3 stars And this book started out so well.An albino woman imprisoned for the death of the man who allegedly bought her, at 9 years old The man who raised her and gave her every opportunity a good education and with many steps up in her social status Memory, is on death row the only woman on death row in Zimbabwe She is charged...Mnemosyne, known as Memory, writes to an unseen, unmet Western journalist from her cell in Zimbabwe s notorious Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison She has been sentenced to death for the murder of her childhood guardian, Lloyd a white man to whom her parents handed her off in a diner when Memory was a young girl Memory is an albino African, a condition that, even after she is treated for its physical pain, leaves deep scars in her psyche Memory s attempts to define her identity and reason thro Mnemosyne, known as Memory, writes to an unseen, unmet Western journalist from her cell in Zimbabwe s notorious Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison She has been sentenced to death for the murder of her childhood guardian, Lloyd a white man to whom her parents handed her off in a diner when Memory was a young girl Memory is an albino African, a condition that, even after she is treated for its physical pain, leaves deep scars in her psyche Memory s attempts to define her identity and reason through a family and community that abandoned her lead her beyond Africa and into a redemptive life in Europe But when she returns to Zimbabwe, disaster in the guise of a horrifying coincidence befalls her and she lands, unwittingly, on death row The premise is breathtaking, the execution less so The epistolary narrative means relying on the memory a compelling and well rendered theme of an unreliable narrator Much of the first half is devoted to describing dai...The Book of Memory and I were at odds with each other for the first little while The language Petina Guppah uses is rich and beautiful, peppered with local dialect and at times challenging to follow, but ultimately worth the effort.The Book of Memory is exactly that not only of the person narrating the story, Memory herself, but also memory itself and the way it flows backwards to points in time without any particularly cohesive order The descriptive prose is haunting and gorgeous, I got a r The Book of Memory and I were at odds with each other for the first little while The language Petina Guppah uses is rich and beautiful, peppered with local dialect and at times challenging to follow, but ultimately worth the effort.The Book of Memory is exactly that not only of the person narrating the story, Memory herself, but also memory itself and the way it flows backwards to points in time without any particularly cohesive order The descriptive prose is haunting and gorgeous, I got a real feel for the streets upon which Memory lived, the shock of the culture change as she moved onto other things and a sharp knowledge of all the characters she met along the way or at least of her interpretation of them.It is a literary novel, the narrative tells a life story Memory has to be seen as an unreliable narrator because it is simply her own world vie...Thanks to Sterling Books in Brussels for the free review copy The Book Of Memory tells the story of a Zimbabwean woman called Memory whose parents sold her to a white man when she was nine She relates her tale in flashback as she sits in prison, having been convicted of the same white man s murder I won t spoil anyof the story personally I m not interested in book reviews which discuss the plot in too much detail other than to say that we do finall...Memory is an albino African woman, and when we meet her she is in a maximum security prison in Zimbabwe for murder The Story of Memory tells what happened to her and how she got there I found the writing in this book to be sublimely beautiful Memory tells her story simply, but it s compelling and dramatic She is told by her defense lawyer to write down her story, and that s how these pages come to be written Memory is brutally honest she is free of self pity Petina Gappah is able to weave Memory is an albino African woman, and when we meet her she is in a maximum security prison in Zimbabwe for murder The Story of Memory tells what happened to her and how she got there I found the writing in this book to be sublimely beautiful Memory tells her story simply, but it s compelling and dramatic She...Perhaps not a fair rating, since I didn t finish it, but I can t imagine suffering through to the end This story held such promise and I really wanted to like it, but had to abandon it after 45 pages The dull, lifeless prose had ...

The Book of Memory
  • English
  • 25 January 2017
  • Hardcover
  • 288 pages
  • 0865479070
  • Petina Gappah
  • The Book of Memory