Overview

"Praised as ""a shining example of what autobiography can be: harrowing, illuminating and thoughtful"" (USA Today), Aminatta Forna's intensely personal history is a passionate and vivid account of an idyllic childhood which became the stuff of nightmare. As a child she witnessed the upheavals of post-colonial Africa, danger, flight, the bitterness or exile in Britain and the terrible consequences of her dissident father's stand against tyranny. Mohamed Forna was a man of unimpeachable integrity and enchanting charisma. As Sierra Leone faced its future as a fledgling democracy, he was a new star in the political firmament, a man who had been one of the first black students to come to Britain after the war. He stole the heart of Aminatta's mother to the dismay of her Presbyterian parents and returned with her to Sierra Leone. But as Aminatta Forna shows with compelling clarity, the old Africa was torn apart by new ways of western parliamentary democracy, which gave birth only to dictatorships and corruption of hitherto undreamed-of magnitude. It was not long before Mohamed Forna languished in jail as a prisoner of conscience, and worse to follow. Aminatta's search for the truth that shaped both her childhood and the nation's destiny began among the country's elite and took her into the heart of rebel territory. Determined to break the silence surrounding her father's fate, she ultimately uncovered a conspiracy that penetrated the highest reaches of government and forced the nation's politicians and judiciary to confront their guilt. The Devil that Danced on the Water is a book of pain and anger and sorrow, written with tremendous dignity and beautiful precision: a remarkable, and important, story of Africa."

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9780802140487

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Reviews

"""An absorbing account of Aminatta Forna's family and life: the joy and difficulties her parents faced in their early days, the ambitions and triumphs of later years, and the disappointment and tragedy that befell the family in the turbulence that almost overwhelmed the nation... Eloquent without recrimination, and truthful without rancour."" -- Abdulrazak Gurnah, Novel Laureate ""Aminatta Forna's quest is urgent and heroic. She must face down a brutal war that deprived her of a beloved father and country. She must redeem those losses by pursuing justice in every form: political, cultural, and spiritual. We follow her from childhood to adulthood, from Sierra Leone to England, from indictment to elegy. This is a searing and wise memoir."" -- Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland and Constructing a Nervous System ""There were times while reading this beautiful book when I had to ask myself whether I was holding my breath from the beauty of the language, or from the events unfolding on the page. Moving and provocative, The Devil that Danced on Water is at once an impassioned eulogy for a father, and a daughter's brave and relentless examination of what led to his death. Formidably talented and fiercely intelligent, Aminatta Forna reminds us, in a way that few others can, that reckoning with the past can render a form of justice, no matter the distance and years."" -- Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King, shortlisted for the Booker Prize ''Forna has written a profound, moving elegy not only to her heroic father, but also to the dashed dreams of Africa's independence. Sharp-eyed, but always compassionate, she plaits national tragedy with the delightful details of a seventies childhood, comic cultural confusions with the anguish of parental break-up, diplomatic glamour with clinical descriptions of the horrors of civil war. This is also a thrilling journalistic investigation that digs through layers to expose government corruption, collusion and moral disintegration. A classic of trauma and resilience that through its clarity, depth and intellectual integrity, expands our understanding of humanity.'' -- Leila Aboulela, author of Minaret and River Spirit""We could place [Forna's] memoir of Sierra Leone alongside Nega Mezlekia's Notes from the Hyena's Belly, about Ethiopia, or Rian Malan's My Traitor's Heart, about South Africa. All these remarks would be accurate enough, but they would fail to capture what The Devil That Danced on the Water most certainly is: a masterpiece that makes sense of senselessness."" -- Lorraine Adams, The Washington Post ""Forna has written a book that is impossible to forget, or to confuse with any other memoir of tyrannical times...This is an obsessive, driven, refreshing book about Africa, despotism and exile. It is also a beautifully drawn portrait of childhood, and the ruses, stratagems, and sheer bloody-mindedness that Aminatta used to keep her young self safe, and sane in a world ruled by murder, marriage and constant movement."" -- Christopher Hope, The Washington Post ""Harrowing...Forna writes with a compelling mix of distance and anguish, intent on explaining her father's death and reclaiming his memory. Lush descriptions of her idyllic childhood provide eerie counterpoint to the chilling depictions of the hell Sierra Leone had become upon her return in recent years...Reminiscent of Isabelle Allende'sHouse of the Spirits, Forna's work is a powerfully and elegantly written mix of complex history, riveting memoir and damning expose. -- Publisher's Weekly (Starred) ""An African memoir unlike any before it."" -- The Economist ""The Devil that Danced on the Water is an impressive contribution to the literature of post-colonial Africa, the mysterious continent that continues to resist all attempts to remake it in a Western image."" -- Jason Cowley, The Times, Book of the Week"

A remarkable personal story of lies, greed and corruption amidst the cultivation of fear and violence that marked an increasingly malevolent dictatorship...Forna offers a human account of Sierra Leone's tragedy that does much to remedy a media image of a faraway country that suffers a bizarre fate at the hands of inscrutable rebels.

We could place [Forna's] memoir of Sierra Leone alongside Nega Mezlekia's Notes from the Hyena's Belly, about Ethiopia, or Rian Malan's My Traitor's Heart, about South Africa. All these remarks would be accurate enough, but they would fail to capture what The Devil That Danced on the Water most certainly is: a masterpiece that makes sense of senselessness. -- Lorraine Adams, The Washington Post Forna has written a book that is impossible to forget, or to confuse with any other memoir of tyrannical times...This is an obsessive, driven, refreshing book about Africa, despotism and exile. It is also a beautifully drawn portrait of childhood, and the ruses, stratagems, and sheer bloody-mindedness that Aminatta used to keep her young self safe, and sane in a world ruled by murder, marriage and constant movement. -- Christopher Hope, The Washington Post Harrowing...Forna writes with a compelling mix of distance and anguish, intent on explaining her father's death and reclaiming his memory. Lush descriptions of her idyllic childhood provide eerie counterpoint to the chilling depictions of the hell Sierra Leone had become upon her return in recent years...Reminiscent of Isabelle Allende'sHouse of the Spirits, Forna's work is a powerfully and elegantly written mix of complex history, riveting memoir and damning expose. -- Publisher's Weekly (Starred) An African memoir unlike any before it. -- The Economist The Devil that Danced on the Water is an impressive contribution to the literature of post-colonial Africa, the mysterious continent that continues to resist all attempts to remake it in a Western image. -- Jason Cowley, The Times, Book of the Week

Author Information

Aminatta Forna is an author, broadcaster and journalist.

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