Happiness

By Aminatta Forna

'Forna's voice is relentlessly compelling, her ability to summon atmosphere extraordinary ... A thing of lasting beauty' OBSERVER

SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2019
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2019

A breathtaking novel from Orange Prize-shortlisted and Commonwealth Writers' Prize-winning author Aminatta Forna

Waterloo Bridge, London. Two strangers collide. Attila, a Ghanaian psychiatrist, and Jean, an American studying the habits of urban foxes. From this chance encounter in the midst of the rush of a great city, numerous moments of connections span out and interweave, bringing disparate lives together.

Attila has arrived in London with two tasks: to deliver a keynote speech on trauma and to check up on the daughter of friends, his 'niece', Ama, who hasn't called home in a while. It soon emerges that she has been swept up in an immigration crackdown – and now her young son Tano is missing.

When, by chance, Attila bumps into Jean again, she joins him in his search for Tano, mobilizing into action the network she has built up, mainly from the many West African immigrants working London's myriad streets, of volunteer fox-spotters: security guards, hotel doormen, traffic wardens. All unite to help and as the search continues, a deepening friendship between Attila and Jean unfolds.

In this delicate yet powerful novel of loves lost and new, of past griefs and of the hidden side of a teeming metropolis, Aminatta Forna asks us to consider the values of the society we live in, our co-existence with one another and all living creatures – and the true nature of happiness.
_____________________
'Entering Forna's sweeping universe transports you to a place that feels familiar, but also totally feral and full of surprises' FINANCIAL TIMES

'Happiness is a great pleasure to read because of how much life is packed in by Forna ... [it features] the most appealing protagonist I have encountered in a long while' THE TIMES

'The best writer of fiction in this field' EVENING STANDARD

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Apr 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781408893302

Aminatta Forna

Aminatta Forna is a former BBC reporter and has presented on various political and current affair programmes. She is a contributor to several newspapers including the Independent and The Sunday Times. 'The Devil that Danced on Water' was a runner-up for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2003 and she has acted as judge for various awards including the MacMillan African Writer's Prize and the Samuel Johnson Prize. Her most recent novel is 'Ancestor Stones'.

Reviews for Happiness

[debbiemccauley-2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It's not often I cannot be bothered finishing a book, but by page 187 I realised that I was bored and just didn't care about the characters enough to invest any more of my time in them. Needed a good editor to cut the book down by a third. Sorry.

[charl08-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley."He looked over the balustrade in both directions and forgot the cold. This view: the eye, the sinuous curve of the river, the Houses of Parliament lit with gold, and on the opposite side amid the dense constellations of lights, St Paul's and the behemoth towers of the city."I've enjoyed Forna's work (especially The Memory of Love) so was really delighted this was an ARC. She creates characters that I want to know, as well as wanting to know what choices they will make. Here, Jean is working in London studying urban foxes, with the help of an unofficial network of workers in unsocial hours jobs who see more of the hidden London in the hours everyone else sleeps. "She liked to watch those movies. The Day after Tomorrow, less so Mad Max and Waterworld. the Road, Planet of the Apes. Especially Planet of the Apes. The films were a form of penance for what humans had done, had you cheering for the apes and against the humans, not so much failing the Darwin test as screwing up the paper and lobbing it into the trash can."She remembers her time working on a similar project in North America, tracking coyotes who had made towns their home. Attila is just visiting London, but he remembers studying in the city decades before, as he meets colleagues prior to a keynote speech on PTSD. These are quite loose threads at the start of the book, and I put it down and got distracted by shiny new ones. When I picked it up, the book made more sense to me, perhaps because I had just read Jenny Erpenbeck. Forna isn't writing about refugees, but there are very similar themes here about why animals and people (have to) move, the choices that are not necessarily choices, and the need to keep asking the difficult questions, rather than generalising about experiences -Forna's acknowledgements include Resilience. In choosing a character who is an expert worker in warzones she also calls on her knowledge of Sierra Leone and the former Yugoslavia, as shown in her earlier writing. I liked this book a great deal. "He wondered if one day every feeling in the world would be identified, catalogued and marked for eradication. Was there no human experience that did not merit treatment now?"

[pgchuis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Given that my interest in parakeets, coyotes and urban foxes is more or less nil, it is proof of the excellence of this novel that I not only finished it, but enjoyed it very much.Jean, a scientist from the US, is in London studying urban foxes. Attila, a psychiatrist from Ghana, is in London presenting a paper, checking up on his niece who has gone AWOL, and looking in on his former colleague who has early onset dementia, and for whom Attila carries power of attorney. The two main characters meet up while Jean is fox watching and join forces (together with a host of Africans working in London mainly in hotels and as security guards) to find Attila's great-nephew who runs away. (There is also a lot of stuff about wolves, parakeets, coyotes and foxes).This was thought-provoking about (amongst other things) the effects of suffering and whether we in the West spend too much time trying to insulate ourselves from it. I liked the main characters and I think this novel will stay with me for a while.

[carole888fort · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thank you to Grove Atlantic, Atlantic Monthly Press and NetGalley for an advance e-copy of Happiness by Aminatta Forna in exchange for an honest review. This is the story of Jean, an American woman studying London's urban population of foxes and Attila, a psychiatrist from Ghana and an expert in the field of PTSD, who is in London to deliver a speech on trauma. The two accidentally meet on Waterloo Bridge and their emotional adventures in London are at the center of this novel. Happiness is a jewel of a book. It is lyrical and captivates the reader, even with the most minute of details. It is an elegant read and I look forward to reading more books by Aminatta Forna.

[pennymck_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Happiness is about the unseen residents of our cities - the foxes, coyotes, and parakeets, but also the street sweepers, the doormen, the dishwashers. Do we welcome these immigrants to our cities or reject them? Happiness is about pain and trauma, hope and resilience and community. Highly recommended.

[albertgoldfain · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Immersive. Covers a lot of ground using a few very memorable characters. This novel really does end up saying something unique about the nature of happiness, trauma, and the wilderness.

[beamis12 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A Quiet and contemplative novel which begins with a chance meeting on the Waterloo bridge brings together two people, both emotionally wounded. Two people, Jean a woman who studies animals in urban areas and Attila, who is an expert in PTSD in refugees. An unusual friendship will develop between the two, and maybe a hope for more. Although their studies differ in theory, in essence they are both studying the behavior of those, whether animal or human, who were forced out of their natural environment. Trying to adapt to a new environment, often facing hostility.This is a book i should have loved, but didnt, though I did admire the prose and the subjects. I even liked the characters, though my favorites were the doormen who came from various Africa countries. They added a compassionate element that I liked. I'm not sure why this missed the mark for me, whether it was my mood or that I found the plot meandering, but I found myself putting it down and not in a big hurry to pick it back up. I did like the last third more, which is why I rated this the way I did. ARC from Netgalley.

[Joanna Disch · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Unglaublich bewegende Geschichte über Menschen, Tiere und unsere Beziehungen untereinander. Teilweise harter Tobak, aber das ist leider auch die Realität.

[boredgames · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

really intelligent and complex novel. a bit of a ponderous read at times but marvellously nuanced, assured and moving at others. i skimmed some of the italicised sctions. Attila and Jean are incredibly detailed characters, I believed in the love story between them.

[hemlokgang · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There were times I thought this novel was very good, but ultimately, it was just okay. It dragged on too slowly and was a bit confusing to follow. It's too bad, because the prose was lovely.

[m.belljackson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The human plot is good, hough readers oddly get hardly anything about what Attica is thinking about Jean until toward the ending.HAPPINESS would rate Five Stars if the author had not opened with gruesome Animal Cruelty,a pattern which unfortunately continues throughout the book. A lot got skipped.Silver Man, the Streetwalkers, and all the other West African Workers who helped to find Tano made remarkable reading,as well, readers get a tour of London Streets highlighted by nature, animals, and birdsand Jean's "Wild Spaces" gardens. Was there a tall wall or fence around her roof top?When Attica visited Rosie, why didn't he check to see if the bird that flew into the windowwas alive - or foreshadowed her death...?Why did Jean never talk with Attica about the bizarre behavior of the woman she was creating a garden for? He could have given expert advice that actually could have helped.

[SithabileKgosidintsi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another beautiful love story from Aminatta Forna. This one illuminates the resilience of the human spirit people who choose to keep going despite their broken lives. The realization at the end by Attila that trauma does not equal damage is the highlight of the novel. I wasn’t sure where the story was going with the urban coyote and foxes but it illustrates resilience and adaptation which enables us all to not just survive but have the possibility of being better and stronger. Love itself is such a fragile emotion but is so much a part of the human experience even when conditions are not ideal .

[kakadoo202 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted to like it but hd to give up half way through

[miss.mesmerized · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

They meet by accident, but somehow they have known each other forever. Attila, a Ghanaian psychiatrist, has come to London to give a speech at a conference. He is a specialist in post-traumatic stress and has seen the worst the world has to offer. But this is not the only thing he has to do there. First of all, he has to find the daughter of some of his friends who hasn’t called for a couple of days and who, together with her son, seems to be missing. Another thing task waiting for him is to visit Rosie, his former colleague and lover. She is in a home, not aware of the world anymore, waiting for her life to come to an end. While Attila is occupied with the humans around him, the American biologist Jean cares a lot more for the animals. Especially foxes around town. She is fighting a hopeless battle against those who want to kill them all and do not understand that this is not how things work with wild animals. Aminatta Forna’s novel has a title which could hardly fit better: “Happiness”. The whole story is about happiness and the question what you need in life to be happy and what happiness means after all. But maybe it is not happiness that we are looking for, but rather – as one of the characters puts it – hope. Without hope, there is not future, but you can have a whole lot of future without happiness.Both Jean and Attila are most interesting characters in their very own ways. The author has done a great job in creating them and in opposing them, their view of the world and the way they approach life. They have some similarities, too, their principles and beliefs and the fight for what they believe is the right thing – it is not easily nowadays to find people with such strong convictions.Yet, what I loved most about the novel were the really poetic ways of unobtrusively talking about life and love in a philosophical way. She captures the fragility of love and our existence in a way that is hard to excel. I really fell for the language in this novel and was waiting eagerly to find more of those passing comments that capture so much truth in this unassuming, shy way:The reckless open their arms and topple into love, as do dreamers, who fly in their dreams without fear or danger. Those who know that all love must end in loss do not fall but rather cross slowly from the not knowing into the knowing.It is a bittersweet story, full of love and loss, life and death. And certainly one of the most remarkable novels of this spring.

[andy5185 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A quiet meditative read. Beautifully written and full of valuable truths about humanity and the natural world delivered with precision by extraordinarily real-feeling characters. I particularly loved learning more about foxes and coyotes living among us.

[askelmore · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Best for:People who enjoy sweet, thoughtful books.In a nutshell:Two lives collide on the streets of South London.Worth quoting:“He wondered if one day every feeling in the world would be identified, cataloged and marked for eradication. Was there no human experience that did not merit treatment now?”Why I chose it:It was recommended to me as part of a book spa.What it left me feeling:ContemplativeReview:This is an interesting book that I found more challenging to read than I expected.The plot: Attila is a psychiatrist originally from Ghana who has traveled around the world to various war zones and other areas filled with trauma, assisting the traumatised. He is in London, where he once lived, for a conference. Jean is a scientist originally from the US who tracks foxes in South London. Their lives intersect when the son of a family friend of Attila’s goes missing after his mother is wrongly detained by immigration authorities.The book takes place primarily where I live and work, so I recognize so many of the geographic markers, which made the book so vivid for me - I go for runs in the part where Jean is tracking foxes, walk along the street where Attila meets with someone caring for another friend of his. I regularly see foxes on my morning runs, and had a fox den with three pups behind the garden of my first flat here. So in some ways I could see the scenes of the book playing out as clearly as if I were watching them on screen.The book deals with so many themes - aging, family, community, immigration, prejudice, racism, love, loss, trauma. It looks at the conclusions people jump to, and the pathologizing of human emotions. It explores how people relate to people they love, how the decisions we make can take us far from what we once thought of as home, and how we build new lives. The book moves through time a lot, but I found it a bit harder to follow in this book than in similar ones. That didn’t make it bad, or wrong, and I can see the thread and the reasoning behind it, but I’m not sure it worked that well for me. That said, it is definitely a book that I will think about for a long while.Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:Donate it