The Memory of Love

by Aminatta Forna

Freetown, Sierra Leone: a devastating civil war has left an entire populace with terrible secrets to keep. In the capital’s hospital Kai, a gifted young surgeon is plagued by demons that are beginning to threaten his livelihood. Elsewhere in the hospital lies Elias Cole, a university professor who recalls the love that obsessed him and drove him to acts that are far from heroic. As past and present intersect, Kai and Elias are drawn unwittingly closer by Adrian, a British psychiatrist with good intentions, and into the path of one woman at the centre of their stories. The Memory of Love is a heartbreaking story of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

(From Publisher).

Aminatta Forna was born in Glasgow, raised in Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom. Her books include Ancestor Stones, a novel set in West Africa, and The Devil that Danced on the Water, a memoir of her dissident father and her country. The Devil that Danced on the Water was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2003, serialised on BBC Radio, also in The Sunday Times newspaper, and selected for the Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers series.

Ancestor Stones was a New York Times Editor's Choice book, selected by the Washington Post as one of the Best Novels of 2006 and one of The Listener Magazine's Best 10 Books of 2006. In 2007 Aminatta was named by Vanity Fair as one of Africa’s most promising new writers. Ancestor Stones was also the winner of the Hurston Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction, was nominated for the International Dublin IMPAC Award and the 2008 winner of the Liberaturpreis in Germany.

Aminatta is on the advisory committees of the Royal Literary Fund and the Caine Prize for African Writing. Her television credits include the arts documentary Through African Eyes (BBC), the documentary series Africa Unmasked (Channel 4) and in 2009, The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu (BBC). Her journalism has appeared in Granta, The Economist, The Sunday Times, The Observer, Vanity Fair and Vogue Magazine.

This book impressed us for its intelligent and passionate writing and the courage of its author to tackle big themes.