A01=C.A. Davids
African novels
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
apartheid
Author_C.A. Davids
automatic-update
Category1=Fiction
Category=FA
Category=FBA
Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
China
COP=United Kingdom
Delivery_Pre-order
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
Jennifer Makumbi
Langston Hughes
Language_English
PA=Temporarily unavailable
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
softlaunch
South Africa
Teju Cole
Tiananmen
Tope Folarin
Zinzi Clemmons
Product details
- ISBN 9781839760877
- Weight: 250g
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 08 Feb 2022
- Publisher: Verso Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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Fleeing her moribund marriage in Cape Town, Beth accepts a diplomatic posting to Shanghai. In this anonymous city she hopes to lose herself in books, wine, and solitude, and to dodge whatever pangs of conscience she feels for her fealty to a South African regime that, by the 21st century, has betrayed its early promises.
At night, she hears the sound of typing, and then late one evening Zhao arrives at her door. They explore hidden Shanghai and discover a shared love of Langston Hughes--who had his own Chinese and African sojourns. But then Zhao vanishes, and a typewritten manuscript--chunk by chunk--appears at her doorstep instead. The truths unearthed in this manuscript cause her to reckon with her own past, and the long-buried story of what happened to Kay, her fearless, revolutionary friend...
Connecting contemporary Shanghai, late Apartheid-era South Africa, and China during the Great Leap Forward and the Tiananmen uprising--and refracting this globe-trotting and time-traveling through Hughes' confessional letters to a South African protege about the poet's time in Shanghai--How to Be a Revolutionary is an amazingly ambitious novel. It's also a heartbreaking exploration of what we owe our countries, our consciences, and ourselves.
At night, she hears the sound of typing, and then late one evening Zhao arrives at her door. They explore hidden Shanghai and discover a shared love of Langston Hughes--who had his own Chinese and African sojourns. But then Zhao vanishes, and a typewritten manuscript--chunk by chunk--appears at her doorstep instead. The truths unearthed in this manuscript cause her to reckon with her own past, and the long-buried story of what happened to Kay, her fearless, revolutionary friend...
Connecting contemporary Shanghai, late Apartheid-era South Africa, and China during the Great Leap Forward and the Tiananmen uprising--and refracting this globe-trotting and time-traveling through Hughes' confessional letters to a South African protege about the poet's time in Shanghai--How to Be a Revolutionary is an amazingly ambitious novel. It's also a heartbreaking exploration of what we owe our countries, our consciences, and ourselves.
C.A. Davids's debut novel, The Blacks of Cape Town, was published in South Africa and shortlisted for the Edinburgh Book Fest's First Book Award, the University of Johannesburg Debut Writing Prize, and the SALA First-time Published Author Award, among others. She is also the publisher of everychild books. She lives in Cape Town.
