Books: Afterlives, The Last Cuentista

»Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Tanzanian author Abdulrazak Gurnah “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.” His new novel Afterlives is a powerful, layered saga that spans generations. Set against the harsh colonization of east Africa, it is a story of shifting fates, disappointments and loss, and powerful love. Ilyas is taken from his family on the coast of east Africa by German colonial troops when he is a child. Forced to fight against his own people, he returns home years later to find that his parents have disappeared and his sister, Afiya, has been forced into slavery. Hamza also fights in the war, and when he returns home with only the clothes on his back and haunted by his brutal war experiences, he meets the beautiful, fearless Afiya. With crisscrossing fates, these young people are trying to make something of their lives and loves, while the rumblings of a new war on a faraway continent grow louder. Will they be carried away once more? Hardcover, 320 pages, 624 pesos. » The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

“Gripping in its twists and turns, and moving in its themes,” (New York Times), this dystopian — but optimistic — middle-grade novel is the winner of the 2022 John Newbery Medal, one of the most prestigious prizes in children’s literature. Petra Peña is a young girl who longs to be a storyteller, just like her beloved abuelita. Then, after a comet destroys Earth, a group of a few hundred scientists and their families — including Petra — have been selected to populate a new planet and continue the human race. But the evil collective that takes over the transport ship is intent upon erasing the sins —and the memories — of the population. When Petra awakens hundreds of years later, she realizes that she is the only person with memories of Earth and the stories of the past. Can she bring them back to life? Is there hope for the future? Sprinkled with Mexican folklore, this luminous journey through the stars reminds us of what it means to be human, told through the eyes of a smart young girl who is braver than she thinks. For middle grades, teens, and adults. Hardcover, 320 pages, 422 pesos.

Juanita Stein owns the bookstore Between the Lines on Calle 62 and 53 in the Centro. Visit facebook.com/BetweenTheLinesMerida

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