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Title details for Everfair by Nisi Shawl - Available

Everfair

#1.0 in series

by Nisi Shawl
Allyson Johnson
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
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2 of 2 copies available
Everfair is a wonderful Neo-Victorian alternate history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier. Fabian Socialists from Great Britian join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo's "owner," King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.
Nisi Shawl's speculative masterpiece manages to turn one of the worst human rights disasters on record into a marvelous and exciting exploration of the possibilities inherent in a turn of history. Everfair is told from a multiplicity of voices: Africans, Europeans, East Asians, and African Americans in complex relationships with one another, in a compelling range of voices that have historically been silenced. Everfair is not only a beautiful book but an educational and inspiring one that will give the reader new insight into an often ignored period of history.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Everfair

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 11, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781515993032
      • File size: 366898 KB
      • Duration: 12:44:22

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 1, 2016
      In this deeply compelling debut novel, Shawl, who’s well known for her short fiction (Filter House) and teaching (Writing the Other, with Cynthia Ward), takes readers to an alternate Earth where the inhumane history of the Belgian Congo is brilliantly rewritten when Africa’s indigenous populations learn about steam power. Determined to help former slaves return to Africa, African-American missionary and Civil War veteran Rev. Lt. Thomas Jefferson Wilson forms an alliance in 1889 with Great Britain’s Fabian Society, an organization interested in creating a model Socialist utopia. Together, they buy land in the Congo from Belgian’s King Leopold II and create Everfair, a homeland for returning former slaves, foreigners searching for a better life, and Congolese natives desperate to escape Belgium’s brutal grasp. Everfair draws in a variety of characters, including adventurers, broken families, poets, and inventors. Cultures clash as ancient traditions, old prejudices, and innovative technology feed fresh, new intrigues. Shawl deftly wields a diverse cast of characters to impressive effect, taking readers from the Victorian era to WWI and its aftermath. This highly original story blends steampunk and political intrigue in a compelling new view of a dark piece of human history.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Reading with high energy, a conversational style, and the audiobook's tone of optimism, Allyson Johnson narrates this sprawling alternate history. The story asks a series of what if's. What if the Belgian Congo had not been a scene of slavery and exploitation in the late nineteenth century? And what if the nation instead had become a free and permanent home to refugee Africans from all over the world? That imaginary nation is the Everfair of this novel. Johnson deftly handles the virtual U.N. of character accents--from African and Asian to German and American--while the story is heightened by the fantastic trappings of steampunk: pneumatic machines, giant dirigibles, and prosthetic limbs, for example. A heady mix of history, Edwardian politics, and fantasy. B.P. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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