Dust

by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor


Kenya, 2007. Odidi Oganda, running for his life, is gunned down in the streets of Nairobi. His sister, Ajany, and their father bring his body back home, to a crumbling colonial house in northern Kenya. But the peace they seek is hard to find: the murder has stirred deeply buried memories of colonial violence, of the killing-sprees of the Mau Mau uprising, and the shocking political assassination of Tom Mboya in 1969. When a young Englishman appears, searching for his missing father, another story, of love, or at least a connection, begins.

This is a spellbinding state of the nation novel about Kenya, showing how the violence of the past informs the violence and disorder of the present. Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor's memorable characters; Ajany's mother, deranged with grief and past violations, the Trader, embodying the timeless nomadic traders of Sudan, and Odidi himself, who transcended his past, came to success, and then a tragic end, are enchanting. Owuor reveals to us a new Kenya, a Kenya of bloodshed but also of modernity, suffused with a spirit world only half-remembered. This is a country where the characters listen so acutely for what is not said, and for the voices from the distant and recent past.

ISBN: 9781783781317 SKU: 2030301005766
KES 2,150
International delivery
Free delivery on orders over Ksh 2,000
Free click & collect

Reviews

Average rating: 5

from 1 review

5 1 five star review
4 0 four star reviews
3 0 three star reviews
2 0 two star reviews
1 0 one star reviews
Add your review

anonymous reviewed on 11 Oct 2021
Verified Purchase

Dust

Beautifully and vividly written. I find myself lost in this book all too often. it's both heartbreaking and brilliant in equal measure

Add your review