Loved this. It wasn't a convoluted read but you had to keep turning pages to see what was going on. Easy to read and easy to care for the main character. I liked that it ended on a hopeful note. ( )

In The Book of Memory, the narrative takes the form of the protagonist Memory's recounting her story to support her appeal from a death sentence in prison in Zimbabwe. A black albino, Memory has been convicted for the murder of the white man she believes bought her from her parents as a child.

It's a novel that explores a number of interesting themes amidst the backdrop of the relatively newly formed Zimbabwe and the political and social upheaval of the times: the societal difficulties of being albino as a person of colour in Africa, homosexuality in a country where it is outlawed, the education disparities between the wealthy and the poor.

I enjoyed the writing style in this book. It's a book that didn't necessarily feel particularly new in terms of its plot ideas (so much so that for a while I was convinced I'd read it before), but it swept me along and Gappah kept the intrigue right to the end.

4 stars - a very worthwhile random grab from the library this week. ( )

Amazing story. Beautifully written. ( )

Narrated by Memory, a young black Zimbabwean woman, in jail for the murder of her white adopttve father. She is writing down her life story for her lawyer's planned appeal - a Book of Memory indeed- and takes us through her life, darting back and forth from the grim daily prison routine to recollections of her childhood. A loving father, a strange mother, family tragedies, the Zimbabwean world of religion and superstition....and then the inexplicable moment that she was 'sold' to a professor, and the world of privilege she came to inhabit. The facts only emerge in the last chapters, revealing an unexpected twist.
Quite a page-turner. *3.5. ( )

I don't disagree that this book starts slow. It's a strange book in many ways, with the heavy-handed metaphors, the almost-ridiculous storyline...but it also moves from being slow to being much, much more readable. I can't decide how I feel about it. ( )