I’ve recently read two very different novels in which traumatised mothers suffer a second blow in being distanced from both their children, albeit the separation is for very good reasons. The first is a translation set against the backdrop of the Rwandan genocide. The tragedy in the second is less widespread, restricted to one particular family, but nevertheless extremely painful for those concerned. Read on to discover how these books are about so much more.
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All Your Children Scattered by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse translated by Alison Anderson
Immaculata named her daughter Blanche because her father was a white man. She called her son, by a fellow Black Rwandan, Bosco so that her children would seem more like a pair. But their lives couldn’t have been more different. Because of the father she never met, Blanche was evacuated to France before the genocide. Bosco ran away from boarding school to fight for the oppressed.
Now Bosco is dead and Blanche’s son, Stokely, is learning about his heritage. His health makes travel to Rwanda difficult; his grandmother, when she visits the family in Bordeaux, is initially mute. Like Stokely, we get only hints of her suffering: first as a political prisoner, later starving in a cellar as neighbour hacks neighbour to bits.
I believe this is the first novel I’ve read that’s set in Rwanda, and I was keen to learn. For me, a more linear narrative would’ve made that easier, but I suppose the fragmentation is a more honest reflection of the trauma that nation has suffered. This is an important novel about colonialism, civil war and intergenerational trauma. Thanks to Europa editions for my review copy.
Now Bosco is dead and Blanche’s son, Stokely, is learning about his heritage. His health makes travel to Rwanda difficult; his grandmother, when she visits the family in Bordeaux, is initially mute. Like Stokely, we get only hints of her suffering: first as a political prisoner, later starving in a cellar as neighbour hacks neighbour to bits.
I believe this is the first novel I’ve read that’s set in Rwanda, and I was keen to learn. For me, a more linear narrative would’ve made that easier, but I suppose the fragmentation is a more honest reflection of the trauma that nation has suffered. This is an important novel about colonialism, civil war and intergenerational trauma. Thanks to Europa editions for my review copy.
Sisters by Judith Barrow
The sisters are teenagers when a silly prank leads to the death of their baby brother. The younger girl, Mandy, takes the blame. Shunned by her father and ostracised by her schoolmates, she goes to live with her aunt and uncle on a smallholding in Wales. Reinventing herself as Lisa, she prospers and begins a career as a social worker protecting vulnerable kids.
Meanwhile, the guilt has led Angie to run away to Manchester, where she struggles to survive on the city’s streets. Eventually, she marries and returns to the Yorkshire village to be (partly) reconciled with her parents, albeit not with Lisa. (Here, author Judith Barrow treats us to some lovely descriptions of compulsive behaviours Angie uses to substitute for her lack of control.)
The sisters don’t communicate until their mother’s funeral, and the tension between them isn’t solely due to Lisa’s resentment. Should it matter to Lisa that Angie is afraid of her husband? Will Stephen’s malice affect her too? Another page-turning novel about fraught family relationships from the author of The Memory, shortlisted for Wales book of the year 2021.
Meanwhile, the guilt has led Angie to run away to Manchester, where she struggles to survive on the city’s streets. Eventually, she marries and returns to the Yorkshire village to be (partly) reconciled with her parents, albeit not with Lisa. (Here, author Judith Barrow treats us to some lovely descriptions of compulsive behaviours Angie uses to substitute for her lack of control.)
The sisters don’t communicate until their mother’s funeral, and the tension between them isn’t solely due to Lisa’s resentment. Should it matter to Lisa that Angie is afraid of her husband? Will Stephen’s malice affect her too? Another page-turning novel about fraught family relationships from the author of The Memory, shortlisted for Wales book of the year 2021.
| Listen to me chatting with Judith Barrow about some overlapping themes – of caring and writing about mental / emotional distress and disabilities – in our novels, The Memory and Matilda Windsor is Coming Home. | |
 | The theme of domestic abuse, and the prospect of revenge, in Sisters inspired this week’s 99-word story in response to the prompt the dishes. I must emphasise it is worlds away from a BOT, but I have been reading Gone Girl which, much to my surprise, turns out to be my kind of book. |
Best served cold
Angie cringed when she saw the cereal bowl centred on the kitchen table. Her shoulder screamed as she scraped at crusted oats with a lacquered nail. If he could dislocate a joint for ‘smiling inappropriately’, he could murder her for being a sloppy housewife.
Yet, despite the pain, she smiles as she stirs the batter in the baking bowl. She’s doubled the sugar to disguise the taste of strychnine, doubled the chocolate to inspire him to take a second slice. She did hesitate between hot pudding and tray-bake brownies. But everyone knows revenge is a dish best served cold.
Angie cringed when she saw the cereal bowl centred on the kitchen table. Her shoulder screamed as she scraped at crusted oats with a lacquered nail. If he could dislocate a joint for ‘smiling inappropriately’, he could murder her for being a sloppy housewife.
Yet, despite the pain, she smiles as she stirs the batter in the baking bowl. She’s doubled the sugar to disguise the taste of strychnine, doubled the chocolate to inspire him to take a second slice. She did hesitate between hot pudding and tray-bake brownies. But everyone knows revenge is a dish best served cold.
Click the image to check out some books on a theme of friendship – most are discounted during February 2023.
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