Namwali Serpell – författare

'A landmark appraisal... deep and enriching' GUARDIAN'An exhilarating meeting of critical minds' OBSERVER'Serpell is a superlative essayist' DIANA EVANS'Serpell brings her expertise and eye to Toni Morrion's singular literary genius' HARPER'S BAZAARThe essential companion to Toni Morrison’s work, written by Namwali Serpell, ‘one of the most innovative and intelligent writers today’ (Financial Times)Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and most beloved of writers, has inspired generations of readers. But her artistic genius is often overshadowed by her monumental public persona, perhaps because, as Namwali Serpell puts it, ‘she is our only truly canonical black, female writer – and her work is highly complex.’ In On Morrison, Serpell brings her unique experience as both an award-winning writer and professor to illuminate Toni Morrison’s masterful experiments with literary form.This is Morrison as you’ve never encountered her before, a journey through her vivid fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry – with contextual guidance and original close readings. Accessible and thrillingly rigorous, On Morrison is a primer not only on how to read one of the most significant American authors of our time, but how to approach any great work of literature. The conversation between the two black women artist-readers that rises from these pages is stylish, edifying and spectacular in its scope and erudition.‘[Serpell has] hopped on a rocket and touched the Tonisphere, with her mind... Serpell’s excitement, her sense of discovery and dismay, become yours’ NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'Breathtaking, provocative, and refreshing' IMANI PERRY

An illuminating, electrifying exploration of the work of Toni Morrison by an award-winning novelist and Harvard professorToni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and one of our most beloved writers, has inspired generations of readers. But her artistic genius is often overshadowed by her monumental public persona, perhaps because, as Namwali Serpell puts it, “she is our only truly canonical black female writer—and her work is highly complex.” In On Morrison, Serpell brings her unique experience as both an award-winning writer and a professor who teaches a course on Morrison to illuminate her masterful experiments with literary form.This is Morrison as you’ve never encountered her before, a journey through her oeuvre—her fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry—with contextual guidance, archival discoveries, and original close readings. At once accessible and uncompromisingly rigorous, On Morrison is a primer not only on how to read one of the most significant American authors of all time but also on how to read great works of literature in general. This dialogue on the page between two black women artist-readers is stylish, edifying, and thrilling in its scope and intelligence.

A powerful new novel about grief and mourning from the acclaimed and prize-winning author of The Old DriftA BARACK OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEAR and NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARI don't want to tell you what happened. I want to tell you how it felt.Cassandra is twelve; her little brother Wayne is seven. One day, when they're alone together, there's an accident and Wayne is lost forever. Though his body is never recovered, their mother can't stop searching.As Cassandra grows older, she sees her brother everywhere: in cafes, aeroplane aisles, subway cars. But it can't be, of course. Or can it? And then one day, there's another accident, and she meets a man both mysterious and familiar, a man who shares her brother's name and who is also searching for someone...'In Namwali Serpell's hands, grief is a kind of possession. The Furrows is a piercing, sharply written novel about the conjuring power of loss' - RAVEN LEILANI, author of Luster

**Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2020**'The great African novel of the twenty-first century' Tade Thompson, author of Rosewater On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there was once a colonial settlement called The Old Drift.In 1904, in a smoky room at the hotel across the river, an Old Drifter named Percy M. Clark, foggy with fever, makes a mistake that entangles his fate with those of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy.So begins a cycle of unwitting retribution between three Zambian families as they collide and converge over the course of the century, into the present and beyond.'Extraordinary, ambitious, evocative, dazzling' Salman Rushdie'Brilliant . . . heartbreaking' Sunday Times 'Charming, heartbreaking and breathtaking' Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House