Out of Darkness, Shining Light
“Based on Livingstone’s journals and narrated by his gossipy cook and a freedman with a messiah complex, this textured novel illuminates the agonies of colonialism and blind loyalty.”
O, The Oprah Magazine
A Literary Hub Pick of 2019's Most Anticipated Books
A BuzzFeed Books Pick of Most Anticipated Upcoming Books
A Millions.com Pick of Most Anticipated Books of the Year
A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice of the Week
A Christian Science Monitor selection of Best Books of the Month
A Vulture.com Pick of Best Books of Fall
Finalist for the 2020 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Fiction
“This is how we carried out of Africa the poor broken body of Bwana Daudi, the Doctor, David Livingstone, so that he could be borne across the sea and buried in his own land.”
So begins Petina Gappah’s powerful novel of exploration and adventure in nineteenth-century Africa—the captivating story of the loyal men and women who carried explorer and missionary Dr. Livingstone’s body, his papers and maps, fifteen hundred miles across the continent of Africa, so his remains could be returned home to England and his work preserved there. Narrated by Halima, the doctor’s sharp-tongued cook, and Jacob Wainwright, a rigidly pious freed slave, this is a story that encompasses all of the hypocrisy of slavery and colonization—the hypocrisy at the core of the human heart—while celebrating resilience, loyalty, and love.
Praise