Image courtesy of bbc.co.uk
Dame Beryl Bainbridge died last week at the age of 77. During her time, she has written 18 novels, of which 5 were shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Unfortunately, she never landed the prestigious prize. She has also published several plays, essays, reviews and 2 collections of short stories.
Dark themes haunted her earlier books. Her first novel, Harriet Said, was about 2 teenage girls who murdered the wife of a man. The Dressmaker tells the tale of love and murder during World War II. The latter half of her writing career was dominated by historical novels such as The Birthday Boys and Every Man For Himself.
Bainbridge was in the final stages of completing her new novel, The Girl In the Polka Dot Dress, when she passed away. The novel is about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. The people at Little, Brown will be publishing The Girl In the Polka Dot Dress next year.
You can find her novels in the libraries at this Call No.: BAI.
Certain titles are available in audio format.
Please use our online catalogue to check the availability and locations.
psst… Did you know that paranormal romance writer Sherrilyn Kenyon also writes as Kinley MacGregor?
Yen’s Recommended Read:
Image courtesy of Borders Australia
“In 1960s Nigeria, a country blighted by civil war, three lives intersect. Ugwu, a boy from a poor village, works as a houseboy for a university lecturer. Olanna, a young woman, has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos to live with her charismatic new lover, the professor. The third is Richard, a shy Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s enigmatic twin sister. When the shocking horror of the war engulfs them, their loyalties are severely tested as they are pulled apart and thrown together in ways that none of them imagined…”
*Summary extracted from book jacket
** Adichie has also published another novel, Purple Hibiscus, and a collection of short stories, The Thing Around Your Neck. Her books can be found at this Call No.: ADI
***Adichie won the Orange Prize for Fiction with this heartrending novel in 2007.
Catch Adichie’s engaging presentation “The Danger of a Single Story” hosted by TED.
Other stories based in Africa:
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Abe
Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black by Nadine Gordimer
Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor
I was rendered to tears at many points when I perused Half Of a Yellow Sun. Though Adichie never experienced the civil war in Nigeria personally, she weaved a highly believable tale of war, suffering, and loss. Speaking through her characters, Adichie reaches deep into your soul, as you put yourself into the shoes of Ugwu, Richard and Olanna. Do pick this book up the next time you visit the library.
Contributed by Yen Yen, Associate Librarian