The House of Rust: A Novel - Softcover

Bajaber, Khadija Abdalla

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1644450682 ISBN 13: 9781644450680

Publisher: Graywolf Press, 2021

Synopsis

The first Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize winner, a story of a girl’s fantastical sea voyage to rescue her father

The House of Rust is an enchanting novel about a Hadhrami girl in Mombasa. When her fisherman father goes missing, Aisha takes to the sea on a magical boat made of a skeleton to rescue him. She is guided by a talking scholar’s cat (and soon crows, goats, and other animals all have their say, too). On this journey Aisha meets three terrifying sea monsters. After she survives a final confrontation with Baba wa Papa, the father of all sharks, she rescues her own father, and hopes that life will return to normal. But at home, things only grow stranger.

Khadija Abdalla Bajaber’s debut is a magical realist coming-of-age tale told through the lens of the Swahili and diasporic Hadhrami culture in Mombasa, Kenya. Richly descriptive and written with an imaginative hand and sharp eye for unusual detail, The House of Rust is a memorable novel by a thrilling new voice.

About this title

About the Author

Khadija Abdalla Bajaber is a Mombasarian writer of Hadhrami descent and the winner of the inaugural Graywolf Press Africa Prize. Her work has appeared in Enkare Review, Lolwe, and Down River Road, among other places. She lives in Mombasa, Kenya.

Reviews

When her father doesn't return from a fishing trip, Aisha sets sail from modern Mombasa, Kenya, to find him. After facing down three terrifying monsters with only a talking cat by her side and a boat made of bones under her feet, Aisha returns home with her father to a life both unchanged and irrevocably altered. As her grandmother and gossiping neighbors, unaware of Aisha's journey, accelerate matchmaking plans and the wild animals attempt to awaken the snake prince Almassi to protect them from the young monster slayer, Aisha hunts for the elusive House of Rust and its promise of independence from her stifling future-until the clash of all three plans becomes inevitable. With breathtakingly vivid imagery, unforgettable characters, and emotionally charged prose, this story feels timeless. Through a protagonist who finds the mystical more tangible than the real, this novel explores themes of power, faith, duty, and the reciprocity of love and kindness as deftly as Aisha wields her gutting knife. VERDICT A richly layered coming-of-age novel steeped in magical realism and folklore, perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Gods of Jade and Shadow and Katherine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale, as well as for high school collections, especially those supporting creative writing curricula.-Madeline Newquist, Center for Fiction, Brooklynα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Edition details

• Publisher: Graywolf Press
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1644450682
• ISBN 13: 9781644450680
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272