Stubborn Archivist

Yara Rodrigues Fowler is a writer from South London. Her first novel, Stubborn Archivist, was longlisted for the Desmond Elliot and Dylan Thomas Prizes and shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 2019. there are more things was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2022 and the Goldsmiths Prize 2022. Yara is also a part-time organiser.

With an exceptionally light touch, the debut novelist Yara Rodrigues Fowler uses dialogue to sketch out a young woman's awkward attempts to articulate and reconcile different aspects of who she is . . . The novel ends with a tiny movement, a moment of discovery all the more tantalizing for remaining largely unexpressed, and this is undoubtedly the novel's strength: its ability to show something momentous - about cultural identity, sexual violence, racial prejudice - without seeming to say anything at all - TLSStrikingly original - Sunday ExpressRodrigues Fowler's debut novel is a timely exploration of what it means to understand past and present and the delicate balance of embracing two cultures simultaneously...Original and thought-provoking, this is a book that's well worth your time - StylistYara Rodrigues Fowler has written something extraordinary, playing with structure to create an insightful, lyrical and visceral novel - Emerald StreetCompelling . . . it should delight anyone looking for a thoughtful, witty successor to Sally Rooney - ObserverStubborn Archivist is an intimate and wonderfully resourceful exploration of origins. In its quest to uncover what a person is made of it digs deeply into the living body, as well as tracing back through its tangled roots. Visceral and elegant, circumspect and vivid, Yara Rodrigues Fowler has a distinctly unhampered way of telling a story; I liked Stubborn Archivist very very much.I read Stubborn Archivist in a ravenous gulp. It's stunning: so articulate about what it means to live between two languages and countries, tenderly unravelling the knots of unbelonging.My goodness. Yara Rodrigues-Fowler has conjured a work of rare power, startlingly original form, and devastating beauty. This novel is a triumph