We, at The Library at Deptford Lounge, are thrilled to be working in partnership with the BBC TV programme, 100 Novels that Shaped Our World, first broadcast on Saturday 9th November 2019.
We will be writing on this blog throughout January 2020 on the theme of identity.
See other blog post in this series.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Reviewed by Adrienne Tayler
I was 8 when the war in Biafra started. It was the first time I had seen images of starving children with their enormous eyes, distended bellies, too weak to brush away the flies crawling over their faces. I was too young to fully appreciate the causes and the impact on the people of West Africa but I remember those images still.
At my secondary school we studied Nigerian history as part of a post 2nd World War comparative history O-level course and we covered the Biafran Wars, which opened my eyes to the subject of ethnic and cultural divisions between the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo people.
I was really interested to read CNAs fictional account of this time to understand more of the emotions of the people involved and their response to the horrors occurring. CNA has a wonderful style to her writing and is very pleasurable to read. I was really pleased to see her book on the list.
I think fiction is a great way to introduce people to significant historical events. I have just finished reading Girl by Edna O’Brien, which was also set in West Africa and based upon the kidnapping of schoolgirls by Boko Haram. It was an emotionally exhausting read and O’Brien, like Adichie, really captured the horrors of what went on.
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Reviewed By Alice LemmardBeloved, I borrowed from Deptford Library a while ago, when she (Toni Morrison) was still alive. I stumbled across it on the shelf. I remember thinking why have I not read this? It was in the classic section, which impressed me, so it came home with me that night. I devoured it.
I read it a long time ago but the pain and strength resonates in all of us and is stirred up and surfaces from books like this. I enjoy getting lost in the nitty-gritty, where the monsters, or in this case ghosts, are relatable and human nature is presented for better and for worse, that life is not always fair. I enjoy how authors like Toni Morrison set the scene and find strength in their wordplay. A haunted, tragic, hard life of lose, compassion and spirit all thrown together. A woman’s struggle and determination captured word perfectly. A ghost baby, the woman’s price to pay, who drives her sons from her home if I remember correctly, the daughter that gets left behind, soft like dough.
Highly recommend this book to be thankful for all that we have in life. Life affirming literature.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Reviewed By Victor Chapman
One of the novels that have left a lasting impression on me for more than four decades is Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. This classic amongst works of literature is set in Eastern Nigeria, in the fictional town/village of Umuofia at a time when many African societies were coming under pressure from the effects of British rule, Colonialism, with the attendant discord and upheaval that such influences created. Only a master craftsman of a storyteller like Achebe could have penned such a seminal and riveting work, with a flow throughout the text that makes it quite unputdownable.
I read the novel at the age of 15 and though my mind wasn’t fertile enough to fully appreciate everything about the themes at that age, I just knew that it was going to be the sort of book that will stay with me and my peers for all time. And to this day, all of those who read it for either pleasure or studied it for English Literature, have felt the same way about it, the way I do.
It’s a book one reads and never forgets; one that stays with you forever with its larger than life characters and scenes and settings like no other. Another effect it had on me was that it made me want to travel the world to find and walk through some of these the fictional villages and settings in eastern Nigeria, in which all of the high drama in the book was being played out with all its humour, pathos and tragedies. Talk about a must-do or something for a bucket list!
Back in 2003 and 2005, I was able to make a dream come true when I visited Nigeria and parts of Eastern Nigeria. For the first time, I was able to suck in the atmosphere in that novel; meet some of the present day characters reminiscent of those from the novel. I was able to let my imagination run free as I walked through the lands and villages where scenes of high drama had been played out about five decades ago, between protagonists of African traditional religion, culture and civilization and those representing Westernization, Christianity and British Indirect Rule.
It was a conflict between the old and the new, the familiar and the unfamiliar and that between piano and drums, as a celebrated Nigerian poet once put it. Throughout this most riveting of African tales, the tribe is the centre and ideal unit for the characters to stress the need for resistance against the white man who had encroached on their land, trampled on their customs and traditions without any regard to what they held dear – in short a resistance against imperialism. For many in the fictional village of Umuofia, the only authentic identity for the African is the tribe. The white man had come uninvited, and put a knife on the string that held them together and now they had fallen apart.
The role of Westerners in pre and post-colonial Africa also comes in for a sharp critique, as do the Africans who are implacably wedded to the traditions of their clan, irrespective of how inhumane and bad the effects had been on many in their communities, particularly women, down the years. Chinua Achebe did a great job in holding both combatants – the Africans and the Europeans up to the light for a critical examination, warts and all. And it’s fair to say, that very few of the main characters come up smelling like roses.
I will always recommend this book as a must-read for the way it deftly deals with the “coming of the White man” to West Africa and the attendant conflicts at all levels of the society.
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is a book which once read, will never be forgotten.
Victor Chapman, Operations Officer
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Reviewed By Alice LemmardThis book was making waves at the time and I heard good things on the grapevine. The author, Zadie Smith, more than the book was making headlines, so she and the praise she was getting drew me in. You hear good things so you want to see what it’s all about!
I read White Teeth and bought her follow up, On Beauty, as I thought it would look good on my bookshelf! The cover made me want to find out more, the Smiths' wordplay impressed me enough first time round to go back for more.
I would have borrowed White Teeth from my local library. Read it and remember enjoying it. But can’t remember the details, which makes me question how good a story it really was... It was a page turner and it had a clever, readable plot, but we are going back 20 years ago now. I wonder if it has stood the test of time?
Possibly time for a reread.
Related Books
Girl
by Edna O'Brien, 2019.
The Sunday Times bestseller: Girl is the new novel by the legendary Edna O'Brien, author of The Country Girls (dramatised on BBC Radio 4 in August 2019).
Captured, abducted and married into Boko Haram, the narrator of this story witnesses and suffers the horrors of a community of men governed by a brutal code of violence. Barely more than a girl herself, she must soon learn how to survive as a woman with a child of her own. Just as the world around her seems entirely consumed by madness, bound for hell, she is offered an escape of sorts - but only into another landscape of trials and terrors amidst the unforgiving wilds of northeastern Nigeria, through the forest and beyond; a place where her traumas are met with the blinkered judgement of a society in denial.
How do we love in a world that has lost its moorings? How can we comprehend the barbarism of our enemies, and learn forgiveness for atrocities committed in the name of ideology? Edna O'Brien's new novel pierces to the heart of these questions: and the result is her masterpiece.
by Edna O'Brien, 2019.
The Sunday Times bestseller: Girl is the new novel by the legendary Edna O'Brien, author of The Country Girls (dramatised on BBC Radio 4 in August 2019).
Captured, abducted and married into Boko Haram, the narrator of this story witnesses and suffers the horrors of a community of men governed by a brutal code of violence. Barely more than a girl herself, she must soon learn how to survive as a woman with a child of her own. Just as the world around her seems entirely consumed by madness, bound for hell, she is offered an escape of sorts - but only into another landscape of trials and terrors amidst the unforgiving wilds of northeastern Nigeria, through the forest and beyond; a place where her traumas are met with the blinkered judgement of a society in denial.
How do we love in a world that has lost its moorings? How can we comprehend the barbarism of our enemies, and learn forgiveness for atrocities committed in the name of ideology? Edna O'Brien's new novel pierces to the heart of these questions: and the result is her masterpiece.
By Sebastian Barry,
After signing up for the US army in the 1850s, aged barely seventeen, Thomas McNulty and his brother-in-arms, John Cole, fight in the Indian Wars and the Civil War. Having both fled terrible hardships, their days are now vivid and filled with wonder, despite the horrors they both see and are complicit in. Then when a young Indian girl crosses their path, the possibility of lasting happiness seems within reach, if only they can survive.
White Teeth
By Zadie Smith
One of the most talked about debut novels of all time, White Teeth is a funny, generous, big-hearted novel, adored by critics and readers alike.
Dealing - among many other things - with friendship, love, war, three cultures and three families over three generations, one brown mouse, and the tricky way the past has of coming back and biting you on the ankle, it is a life-affirming, riotous must-read of a book.
Beloved
By Toni Morrison, 2006.
Terrible, unspeakable things happened to Sethe at Sweet Home, the farm where she lived as a slave for so many years until she escaped to Ohio.
Her new life is full of hope but 18 years later she is still not free. Sethe's new home is not only haunted by the memories of her past but also by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless.
Her new life is full of hope but 18 years later she is still not free. Sethe's new home is not only haunted by the memories of her past but also by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless.
Things Fall Apart
By Chinua Achebe, 2013.
Okonkwo is the greatest wrestler and warrior alive, and his fame spreads throughout West Africa like a bush-fire in the harmattan. But when he accidentally kills a clansman, things begin to fall apart. Then Okonkwo returns from exile to find missionaries and colonial governors have arrived in the village. With his world thrown radically off-balance he can only hurtle towards tragedy.
First published in 1958, Chinua Achebe's stark, coolly ironic novel reshaped both African and world literature, and has sold over ten million copies in forty-five languages. This arresting parable of a proud but powerless man witnessing the ruin of his people begins Achebe's landmark trilogy of works chronicling the fate of one African community, continued in Arrow of God and No Longer at Ease.
Fugitive Pieces
By Anne Michaels
By Anne Michaels
Jakob Beer is seven years old when he is rescued from the ruins of a buried village in Nazi-occupied Poland. He is the only one of his family to have survived the invasion. Adopted by his saviour, the Greek geologist Athos, Jakob must steel himself to excavate the horrors of his own history. A novel of astounding beauty and wisdom, Fugitive Pieces is a profound meditation on the resilience of the human spirit and love's ability to restore even the most damaged of hearts.
The Bell Jar
By Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath's only novel. Renowned for its intensity and outstandingly vivid prose, it broke existing boundaries between fiction and reality and helped to make Plath an enduring feminist icon. It was published under a pseudonym a few weeks before the author's suicide .
The God of Small Things
By Arundhati Roy
By Arundhati Roy
'They all broke the rules. They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.'
This is the story of Rahel and Estha, twins growing up among the banana vats and peppercorns of their blind grandmother's factory, and amid scenes of political turbulence in Kerala. Armed only with the innocence of youth, they fashion a childhood in the shade of the wreck that is their family: their lonely, lovely mother, their beloved Uncle Chacko (pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher) and their sworn enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun, incumbent grand-aunt).
Arundhati Roy's Booker Prize-winning novel was the literary sensation of the 1990s: a story anchored to anguish but fuelled by wit and magic.
Small Island
By Andrea Levy
It is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh's neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn't know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do?
Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It's desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door.
Gilbert's wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was...
Half of a Yellow Sun
By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university professor. Olanna, a young woman, has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic new lover, the professor. And Richard, a shy English writer, is in thrall to Olanna's enigmatic twin sister. As the horrific Biafran War engulfs them, they are thrown together and pulled apart in ways they had never imagined .
Homegoing
By Yaa Gyasi
Epic in its canvas and intimate in its portraits, Homegoing is a searing and profound debut from a masterly new writer.
By Yaa Gyasi
Effia and Esi: two sisters with two very different destinies. One sold into slavery; one a slave trader's wife. The consequences of their fate reverberate through the generations that follow.
Taking us from the Gold Coast of Africa to the cotton-picking plantations of Mississippi; from the missionary schools of Ghana to the dive bars of Harlem, spanning three continents and seven generations, Yaa Gyasi has written a miraculous novel - the intimate, gripping story of a brilliantly vivid cast of characters and through their lives the very story of America itself.
Taking us from the Gold Coast of Africa to the cotton-picking plantations of Mississippi; from the missionary schools of Ghana to the dive bars of Harlem, spanning three continents and seven generations, Yaa Gyasi has written a miraculous novel - the intimate, gripping story of a brilliantly vivid cast of characters and through their lives the very story of America itself.
'This incredible book travels from Ghana to the US revealing how slavery destroyed so many families, traditions and lives - and how its terrifying impact is still reverberating now. Gyasi has created a story of real power and insight'
On Beauty
By Zadie Smith
Why do we fall in love with the people we do? Why do we visit our mistakes on our children? What makes life truly beautiful?
Set between New England and London, On Beauty concerns a pair of feuding families - the Belseys and the Kipps - and a clutch of doomed affairs. It puts low morals among high ideals and asks some searching questions about what life does to love. For the Belseys and the Kipps, the confusions - both personal and political - of our uncertain age are about to be brought close to home: right to the heart of family.
By Zadie Smith
Why do we fall in love with the people we do? Why do we visit our mistakes on our children? What makes life truly beautiful?
Set between New England and London, On Beauty concerns a pair of feuding families - the Belseys and the Kipps - and a clutch of doomed affairs. It puts low morals among high ideals and asks some searching questions about what life does to love. For the Belseys and the Kipps, the confusions - both personal and political - of our uncertain age are about to be brought close to home: right to the heart of family.
Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank,
Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is an inspiring and tragic account of an ordinary life lived in extraordinary circumstances that has enthralled readers for generations. This Penguin Classics edition is edited by Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler, translated by Susan Massotty, and includes an introduction by Elie Wiesel, author of Night.
'June, 1942: I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.'
In Amsterdam, in the summer of 1942, the Nazis forced teenager Anne Frank and her family into hiding. For over two years, they, another family and a German dentist lived in a 'secret annexe', fearing discovery. All that time, Anne kept a diary. Since its publication in 1947, Anne Frank's diary has been read by tens of millions of people. This Definitive Edition restores substantial material omitted from the original edition, giving us a deeper insight into Anne Frank's world. Her curiosity about her emerging sexuality, the conflicts with her mother, her passion for Peter, a boy whose family hid with hers, and her acute portraits of her fellow prisoners reveal Anne as more human, more vulnerable and more vital than ever.
by Anne Frank,
Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is an inspiring and tragic account of an ordinary life lived in extraordinary circumstances that has enthralled readers for generations. This Penguin Classics edition is edited by Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler, translated by Susan Massotty, and includes an introduction by Elie Wiesel, author of Night.
'June, 1942: I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.'
In Amsterdam, in the summer of 1942, the Nazis forced teenager Anne Frank and her family into hiding. For over two years, they, another family and a German dentist lived in a 'secret annexe', fearing discovery. All that time, Anne kept a diary. Since its publication in 1947, Anne Frank's diary has been read by tens of millions of people. This Definitive Edition restores substantial material omitted from the original edition, giving us a deeper insight into Anne Frank's world. Her curiosity about her emerging sexuality, the conflicts with her mother, her passion for Peter, a boy whose family hid with hers, and her acute portraits of her fellow prisoners reveal Anne as more human, more vulnerable and more vital than ever.
Magazines
You have access to nearly 4,400 digital magazines titles through OverDrive and Press Reader. Find inspiration, new hobbies, gossip, history and learn something new with our wide selection of magazines. This service is available through a computer as well as through apps you can download to your phone or tablet. Get your library card ready and start reading!
The Africa Report
The Africa Report is the international publication of reference dedicated to African affairs, anticipating economic and political changes in Africa and relied upon for the independent expertise in its surveys, sector reports and country focus in each issue.
The Africa Report is the international publication of reference dedicated to African affairs, anticipating economic and political changes in Africa and relied upon for the independent expertise in its surveys, sector reports and country focus in each issue.
Press Reader
We have a wide selection of newspapers and magazines in Press Reader.
You can access these through the Press Reader app or the Press Reader website.
Register with your library card for 30 days of access which you can renew as many times as you want. You can access nearly 4000 magazines and 2400 newspapers.
Some titles include:
We have a wide selection of newspapers and magazines in Press Reader.
You can access these through the Press Reader app or the Press Reader website.
Some titles include:
- Business Day : Nigeria
- The Africa Report
- The Daily Trust
- This Day
- The Guardian Nigeria
- Financial Nigeria Magazine
- Business AM
- Boundless
- This Day Style
- Nigeria Communications Week
Databases
We have over 16 databases covering a wide range of topics. Don't waste time trawling through lots of questionable sites with lots of pop ups and strange advertisements. Get access to free, high quality academic papers, historical newspapers, dictionaries and biographies. All you need is your library card to get started on your research!
The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (3 ed.)
Simon Blackburn, 2016.
Over 3,400 entries
This bestselling dictionary is written by one of the leading philosophers of our time, and it is widely recognized as the best dictionary of its kind. Comprehensive and authoritative, it covers every aspect of philosophy from Aristotle to Zen.
With clear and concise definitions, it provides lively and accessible coverage of not only Western philosophical traditions, but also themes from Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and Jewish philosophy. New entries on philosophy of economics, social theory, neuroscience, philosophy of the mind, and moral conceptions, bring this authoritative third edition up to date.
It is the ideal introduction to philosophy for anyone with an interest in the subject, and it is an indispensable work of reference for students and teachers
Simon Blackburn, 2016.
Over 3,400 entries
This bestselling dictionary is written by one of the leading philosophers of our time, and it is widely recognized as the best dictionary of its kind. Comprehensive and authoritative, it covers every aspect of philosophy from Aristotle to Zen.
With clear and concise definitions, it provides lively and accessible coverage of not only Western philosophical traditions, but also themes from Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and Jewish philosophy. New entries on philosophy of economics, social theory, neuroscience, philosophy of the mind, and moral conceptions, bring this authoritative third edition up to date.
It is the ideal introduction to philosophy for anyone with an interest in the subject, and it is an indispensable work of reference for students and teachers
A Dictionary of Contemporary World History (5 ed.)
Christopher Riches and Jan Palmowski, 2019.
Over 2,800 entries
The authoritative dictionary provides informative and analytical entries on the most important people, organizations, events, movements, and ideas that have shaped the world we live in. Covering the period from 1900 to the present day, this fully revised and updated new edition presents a global perspective on recent history, with a wide range of new entries from Tony Abbott, the European migration crisis, and ISIS to Narendra Modi, Hassan Rouhani, and UKIP. All existing entries have been brought up to date. Handy tables include lists of office-holders for countries and organizations and winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
This comprehensive reference resource will be invaluable to students of history, politics, and international relations as well as to journalists, policymakers, and general readers interested in the modern world.
Christopher Riches and Jan Palmowski, 2019.
Over 2,800 entries
The authoritative dictionary provides informative and analytical entries on the most important people, organizations, events, movements, and ideas that have shaped the world we live in. Covering the period from 1900 to the present day, this fully revised and updated new edition presents a global perspective on recent history, with a wide range of new entries from Tony Abbott, the European migration crisis, and ISIS to Narendra Modi, Hassan Rouhani, and UKIP. All existing entries have been brought up to date. Handy tables include lists of office-holders for countries and organizations and winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
This comprehensive reference resource will be invaluable to students of history, politics, and international relations as well as to journalists, policymakers, and general readers interested in the modern world.
Copies
Access To Research
Free access to a wide range of published academic research covering a variety of subject areas including medicine, art, history and the sciences.
Free access to a wide range of published academic research covering a variety of subject areas including medicine, art, history and the sciences.
Lewisham Libraries are participating in BBCs year-long celebration of literature – 100 Novels that Shaped Our World throughout 2020.
During January members of staff from the Library @Deptford Lounge will be writing about the books selected by the panel at the BBC, covering the theme of Identity.
The books are :
- Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
- White Teeth by Zadie Smith
- Beloved by Tony Morrison
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
- Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
- Small Island by Andrea Levy
- Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
We have the books available in print and as e-books and our reading groups will be choosing some of them to delve into throughout the year. Look out for the events and film showings also happening in our libraries.
Comments