The Book Of Memory - Softcover

A witty and tender account of a life in a country undergoing momentous change. (Paula Hawkins Observer 'Books of the Year')

Startlingly vivid [with] a thriller-like suspense . . . this is a moving novel about memory that unfolds into one about forgiveness, and a passionate paean to the powers of language. (Anita Sethi The Observer)

A writer to take to the heart as well as the head. (Financial Times)

'The Book Of Memory flits back and forth in time and the plot twists and turns right to the end. It is no surprise that Petina Gappah is considered a rising literary star.' (Aline Reed Sunday Express)

A tale which is both compelling and believable. ..Gappah manages to navigate a potentially uncomfortable relationship with great intelligence...Insightful and at the same time a highly personal account of a young Zimbabwean woman's stuiggle, Gappah's work does not disappoint. (Jane Bradley Scotland on Sunday)

It's a cleverly written and powerful story. It will imprint on your own memory. (Anna Fielding Emerald Street)

Every once in a while a debut book comes along that demands attention. And The Book of Memory is exactly that...while the themes and plot are serious and, at times, desperate, it's testament to Gappah's talent that the novel still fizzes with life and humour. (Natasha Lunn Red)

Two sentences in and I was sold. Gappah's compelling first novel is the story of Memory, a Zimbabwean woman convicted of the murder of her adoptive father. The novel weaves between the three strands of Memory's story, and is at times sharply funny, at others searingly painful. Slowly, it becomes clear that not only can memories be unreliable, but if you're not given all the pieces of the puzzle, you build your own story - sometimes with devastating consequences. ' (The Pool)

Memory, the narrator of The Book of Memory, is an albino woman languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she has been convicted of murder. As part of her appeal her lawyer insists that she write down what happened as she remembers it. The death penalty is a mandatory sentence for murder, and Memory is, both literally and metaphorically, writing for her life. As her story unfolds, Memory reveals that she has been tried and convicted for the murder of Lloyd Hendricks, her adopted father. But who was Lloyd Hendricks? Why does Memory feel no remorse for his death? And did everything happen exactly as she remembers?

Moving between the townships of the poor and the suburbs of the rich, and between the past and the present, Memory weaves a compelling tale of love, obsession, the relentlessness of fate and the treachery of memory.