BOOKS 5 FOR THE BOOKSHELF
BEST READ!
The Window Seat
AMINATTA FORNA
First published in 2021, is a collection of essays in which Forna invites us to take a peek into her life, and bear witness to the worlds she's inhabited. Born in Scotland to a Sierra Leonean father and Scottish mother, Forna spent portions of her childhood having to run away from tragedy,labourers her grandfather had, the happy moments she spent on flights as an unaccompanied minor and the fox that made her garden its home. Elsewhere, she turns analytical, exploring the often-duplicitous symmetry of race in America, as well as reflecting on Barack Obama and her own father, members of the Renaissance Generation — a gilded class of African students who were awarded scholarships to study in Western universities. Forna is an enchanting essayist, capable of both humour and insightful reflection. This, taken with her work as a novelist and a documentary filmmaker, marks her out as a writer of exquisite range.
