Swing Time

453 pages. Two brown girls dream of being dancers - but only one, Tracey, has talent. The o ther has ideas- about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It's a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early twenties, never to be rev isited, but never quite forgotten, either.Tracey makes it to the chorus line but struggles with adult life, while her friend leaves the old neighbourhood far be hind, travelling the world as PA to famous singer, Aimee, observing close up how the one per cent live.But when Aimee develops grand philanthropic ambitions, th e story moves from London to West Africa, where diaspora tourists travel back in time to find their roots, young men risk their lives to escape into a different future, the women dance just like Tracey - the same twists, the same shakes - a nd the origins of a profound inequality are not a matter of distant history, but a present dance to the music of time.…