Memory of Love (Forna) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[A] luminous tale of passion and betrayal.… [Forna] forces us to see past bland categorizations like "postcolonial African literature," showing that the world we inhabit reaches beyond borders and ripples out through generations. She reminds us that what matters most is that which keeps us grounded in the place of our choosing. And she writes to expose what remains after all the noise has faded: at the core of this novel is the brave and beating heart, at once vulnerable and determined, unwilling to let go of all it has ever loved.
Maaza Mengiste - New York Times Book Review


[Forna] threads her stories like music.… One is left hauntingly familiar with the distant and alien; not quite able to distinguish the emotional spirits of fiction from the scars of real experience.
Times (UK)


[Forna is] among the most powerful of new voices from Africa.… A novel about the persistence of hope and the redemptive power of love.
Toronto Globe and Mail


[An] elegantly rendered novel of loss and rehabilitation… [that] coalesces into an ambitious exploration of trauma and storytelling.
San Francisco Chronicle


A remarkable feat of storytelling.… [and] a thrilling story of friendship and betrayal.
Karen Holt - Essence


A sprawling, epic novel of love in Sierra Leone from Aminatta Forna, a rising literary star.
Marie Claire


The real pleasure of Forna’s storytelling is in her scrutiny of her characters' inner lives and her ability to connect their choices to the moral dilemmas of a traumatized society
The New Yorker


Forna’s] visceral appreciation of her troubled country is evident on every page of The Memory of Love. So, too, is her probing intelligence—and her compassion.
Salon.com


To read The Memory of Love is to experience, not simply learn about, the inner existences of its characters, even as they lapse in and out of their lives.
Anjali Joseph - Times Literary Supplement (UK)


[A]dmirable if uneven.… Forma's material doesn't measure up to the book's length..… [S]cenes that drag or come off as forced, certainly [don't] ruin the experience, but [they do] occasionally glut what amounts to a heartening cry for moral responsibility.
Publishers Weekly


Forna's second novel after her well-regarded memoir, The Devil That Danced on the Water, takes place in Sierra Leone and weaves stories, past and present, involving Kai, a young surgeon; Elias, an older patient; and Adrian, a British psychiatrist.
Library Journal


Fate and tragedy intertwine in this stunning and powerful portrait of a country in the aftermath of a decade of civil war. —Kristen Huntley
Booklist


(Starred review.) A soft-spoken story of brutality and endurance.… Forna’s insight, elegance and elegiac tone never falter. Tragedy and its aftermath are affectingly, memorably evoked in this multistranded narrative from a significant talent.
Kirkus Reviews