Africaville
A Novel
by Jeffrey Colvin
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Pub Date Dec 10 2019 | Archive Date Dec 10 2019
HarperCollins Publishers | Amistad
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Description
2020 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Nominee-Debut Fiction
A ferociously talented writer makes his stunning debut with this richly woven tapestry, set in a small Nova Scotia town settled by former slaves, that depicts several generations of one family bound together and torn apart by blood, faith, time, and fate.
Vogue : Best Books to Read This Winter
Structured as a triptych, Africaville chronicles the lives of three generations of the Sebolt family—Kath Ella, her son Omar/Etienne, and her grandson Warner—whose lives unfold against the tumultuous events of the twentieth century from the Great Depression of the 1930s, through the social protests of the 1960s to the economic upheavals in the 1980s.
A century earlier, Kath Ella’s ancestors established a new home in Nova Scotia. Like her ancestors, Kath Ella’s life is shaped by hardship—she struggles to conceive and to provide for her family during the long, bitter Canadian winters. She must also contend with the locals’ lingering suspicions about the dark-skinned “outsiders” who live in their midst.
Kath Ella’s fierce love for her son, Omar, cannot help her overcome the racial prejudices that linger in this remote, tight-knit place. As he grows up, the rebellious Omar refutes the past and decides to break from the family, threatening to upend all that Kath Ella and her people have tried to build. Over the decades, each successive generation drifts further from Africaville, yet they take a piece of this indelible place with them as they make their way to Montreal, Vermont, and beyond, to the deep South of America.
As it explores notions of identity, passing, cross-racial relationships, the importance of place, and the meaning of home, Africaville tells the larger story of the black experience in parts of Canada and the United States. Vibrant and lyrical, filled with colorful details, and told in a powerful, haunting voice, this extraordinary novel—as atmospheric and steeped in history as The Known World, Barracoon, The Underground Railroad, and The Twelve Tribes of Hattie—is a landmark work from a sure-to-be major literary talent.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780062913722 |
| PRICE | $27.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 384 |
Featured Reviews
Deb M, Reviewer
Africaville by Jeffrey Colvin
Starting in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1918, this family saga carries us to 1992 with the complexities of four generations living in Canada and the U.S. It is centered around a neighborhood eventually named Africaville.
The entire story is about people being judged by where they live or lived and go to school. Heavy emphasis is placed on where to be buried, of accepting or not accepting their own race (black “passing” as white), loyalty to family and who to visit or not visit, whether far or near. Grudges are held for long periods
Most of the story is told in the third person with very little conversation or action. Much of what happens is through people’s thoughts and memories as told by the author. There is no narrator or central protagonist. People are there and then gone in the next paragraph.
I found the novel very dry not very engaging. I did not see it going anywhere for most of the story. It was a valiant effort by this author, but just didn’t do it for me.
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