ONE WORLD
CLOSER TO THE EDGE: OUR FAVOURITE INTERNATIONAL NOVELS Ghana Must Go - Taiye Selasi
Studying African literature has undoubtedly been one of the highlights of my degree so far, which made choosing just one novel for this collaboration very difficult. However, it’s fair to say that Taiye Selasi’s Ghana Must Go is one of the greatest novels I have ever read. It tells the story of Kweku Sai, a disgraced doctor who leaves his family home one day and never goes back. His wife and four children are each deeply affected by his leaving, spreading themselves across the world to try and move on, until one day they are brought back together by a tragic event. Selasi’s writing style is beautifully poetic, and it is difficult not to become emotionally invested in each character’s fate as they are forced to face into their traumas. As a warning, there are incredibly dark aspects to this novel, but once you get into it it is impossible to put down.
BECKY DAVIES
Call Me By Your Name - Andre Aciman
Call Me By Your Name may have taken the world by storm when it’s adaptation came out in 2017, but the original book has been a personal favourite of mine for years. It tells the story of 17 year old Elio and 24 year old Oliver, chronicling their romance over one fateful Italian summer in 1983. Heartbreaking, beautiful, and wrong, I think the book captures the immorality of the relationship much more than the film does. Elio’s turmoil and confusion at his feelings regarding Oliver, and vice versa, erupt in long passages detailing his derailing train of thought, and Bateman-levels of obsession with his older lover. It makes the ending, of which occurs much farther in the future than the adaptation (although this is going to explored in a proposed sequel), so much more tragic, giving a quiet sadness regarding young love. It’s eye opening, gut-wrenching, and strangely personal, and is well worth a read.
ALICE FORTT
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Image courtesy of FARRAR PUBLISHING.
