The Colour Line: One of the Sunday Times' best historical fiction books of 2023 - Softcover

Igiaba Scego

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1913109208 ISBN 13: 9781913109202

Publisher: Small Axes, 2023

Synopsis

One of the Sunday Times' best historical fiction books of 2023

It was the middle of the nineteenth century when Lafanu Brown audaciously decided to become an artist. In the wake of the American Civil War, life was especially tough for Black women, but she didn't let that stop her. The daughter of a Native American woman and an African-Haitian man, Lafanu had the rare opportunity to study, travel, and follow her dreams, thanks to her indomitable spirit, but not without facing intolerance and violence. Now, in 1887, living in Rome as one of the city's most established painters, she is ready to tell her fiance about her difficult life, which began in a poor family forty years earlier. In 2019, an Italian art curator of Somali origin is desperately trying to bring to Europe her younger cousin, who is only sixteen and has already tried to reach Italy on a long, treacherous journey. While organizing an art exhibition that will combine the paintings of Lafanu Brown with the artworks of young migrants, the curator becomes more and more obsessed with the life and secrets of the nineteenth-century painter.Weaving together these two vibrant voices, Igiaba Scego has crafted a powerful exploration of what it means to be "other," to be a woman, and particularly a Black woman, in a foreign country, yesterday and today.

About this title

About the Author

Igiaba Scego was born in Rome to a family of Somali ancestry. She holds a PhD in education on postcolonial subjects and has done extensive academic work in Italy and around the world. The Italian edition of The Colour Line won the Premio Napoli. Her previous novels include Beyond Babylon (2019) and Adua (2017).

Edition details

• Publisher: Small Axes
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1913109208
• ISBN 13: 9781913109202
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 544