Out of Darkness, Shining Light: A Novel

by Petina Gappah Narrated by Nyasha Hatendi, Sibongile Mlambo

Overview

A powerful, moving, and revelatory novel set in 19th-century Africa — the captivating story of the loyal men and women who carried the body of explorer and missionary David Livingstone from Zambia to Zanzibar so his remains could be returned home to England.

Dawn, May 1, 1873, on the outskirts of Chitambo's village, near Lake Bangweulu in modern-day Zambia. The Scottish explorer and missionary David Livingstone has died. He had been heading south in the African interior on an increasingly maniacal mission to penetrate the greatest secret of Victorian exploration. He wanted to find the source of the world's longest river, the Nile. Instead, on an isolated and swampy floodplain, Dr. Livingstone found his death.

How Livingstone is to be buried will be decided by his African companions, a group of 69 men, women, and children. They decide that come what may, Livingstone, his papers, and his maps must all be carried to England. They bury his heart and other organs under a tree and dry his flesh like jerky in the sun. Over nine months, battling severe illness and hunger, hostile chiefs and unknown terrain, all while taking a tortuous route of more than 1,000 miles to the coast to avoid marauding slave traders, they march with Livingstone's body and the evidence of his explorations.

Their journey has been called “the most extraordinary story in African exploration”. In this novel, their story is retold anew in the distinct, indelible voices of Livingstone's sharp-tongued female cook, Halima; a repressed, formerly enslaved African missionary named Jacob Wainwright; and the collective voice of the retainers. The result is a profound and tragic journey — an epic like no other — that encompasses all of the hypocrisy of slavery and colonization while celebrating resilience, loyalty, and love. In Out of Darkness, Shining Light, Petina Gappah has created an ambitious and artful masterpiece.

Editorial Reviews

NOVEMBER 2019 - AudioFile

Narrators Nyasha Hatendi and Sibongile Mlambo create a rich vocal tapestry for this historical novel. We trace the journey of Africans who are carrying explorer David Livingstone's body across the continent in order to return it to England for burial. Hatendi and Mlambo alternate between the main characters, Jacob and Halima, who make the perilous trip with a retinue of 69 men, women, and children. They bring front and center the brave Africans who worked to accomplish the impossible, traversing hostile territories in memory of someone they came to respect, admire, and love. As Jacob, Hatendi speaks with the confidence of an orator, infusing the character with dignity not readily given to colonial subjects. Mlambo brings out Halima's spiritedness, which is unexpected from an African woman of that time. M.R. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

WINNER OF THE 2020 CHAUTAUQUA PRIZE
ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2019

“The real heroes of this carefully crafted novel are Halima and Wainwright and the other Africans history has hitherto condemned to suffer in silence. It is to the novel’s credit that after 150 years we can now hear their voices.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“We need novels like Gappah’s Out of Darkness, Shining Light, for they remember the stories that have been papered over by history—by whiteness and empire...stories like Halima’s and Jacob’s, told through Gappah’s expert characterization.”
—World Literature Today, Winter 2020 Book Reviews

"A fresh look at the enduring history of colonialism."
—The New York Times, 17 New Books to Watch For in September

“Based on Livingstone’s journals and narrated by his gossipy cook and a freedman with a messiah complex, this textured novel illuminates the agonies of colonialism and blind loyalty—Conrad’s heart of darkness in reverse.”
—O, the Oprah Magazine

“Ambitious...There are love triangles, power struggles, brushes with slave traders, clashes with hostile strangers—even murder ... Gappah’s characters foresee but cannot stop a future that haunts the novel.”
—The New Yorker

“Searing, poignant, often hilarious...Out of Darkness, Shining Light beautifully evokes the moral ambiguities that lurk within the human heart, revealing a talent that continues to grow from book to book.”
—The Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"Glows with the insightful voices of the two servants and the strength of their devotion."
—Christian Science Monitor, Best Books of September

"In contrasting styles, [Petina Gappah] lets two characters describe their trek across Africa with Livingstone’s body, beautifully complicating the narrative."
—Vulture, Best and Biggest Books to Read This Fall

“Petina Gappah's novel is about exploration and adventure in nineteenth-century Africa—the captivating story of the loyal men and women who carried explorer and missionary Dr. Livingstone's body, his papers and maps, fifteen hundred miles across the continent of Africa, so his remains could be returned home to England and his work preserved there.”
—E! Online, 15 Books to Cozy Up with This Fall

"A rich, vivid, and addictive book filled with memorably drawn characters. This is a humane, riveting, epic novel that spotlights marginalized historical voices.”
—Kirkus, starred, Best Historical Fiction of 2019

"Gappah decolonizes the legend of Dr. Livingstone by turning the tale inside out, giving voice to those who are overlooked in the official narratives. The result is an indictment of the legacy of slavery and colonialism that is also an engrossing adventure story.”
—Library Journal, starred

“Fascinating ... David Livingstone, as I learned from this novel, was this very complex individual who was an early British abolitionist—yet had slaves—who devoted his life to finding the source of the Nile. What Petina Gappah has done in this novel is write about what happened after his death.”
—Nancy Pearl, NPR, Four Fantastic Books For The End Of 2019

“In the characters of Halima and Jacob, [Petina Gappah] has created two voices whose authenticity and resonance provide both weight and vitality to this tale of darkness and light,”
—Lorna Kearns, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Riveting ... a deeply layered exploration of courage, sorrow, and resilience, culminating in a revelatory quest and an entracing vision."
—Booklist

"Readers who enjoy expedition travelogues or smartly drawn characters will appreciate Gappah’s winning novel.”
—Publishers Weekly

“An incredible and important book by a masterful writer.”
—Yaa Gyasi, author of Homegoing

“A powerful novel, beautifully told, Out of Darkness, Shining Light reveals as much about the present circumstances as the past that helped create them.”
—Jesmyn Ward, author of Sing, Unburied, Sing

“This is a beautiful novel.”
—Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See

“A sweeping epic that is also startlingly intimate, Out of Darkness, Shining Light is a revelation.”
—Christina Baker Kline, author of Orphan Train

NOVEMBER 2019 - AudioFile

Narrators Nyasha Hatendi and Sibongile Mlambo create a rich vocal tapestry for this historical novel. We trace the journey of Africans who are carrying explorer David Livingstone's body across the continent in order to return it to England for burial. Hatendi and Mlambo alternate between the main characters, Jacob and Halima, who make the perilous trip with a retinue of 69 men, women, and children. They bring front and center the brave Africans who worked to accomplish the impossible, traversing hostile territories in memory of someone they came to respect, admire, and love. As Jacob, Hatendi speaks with the confidence of an orator, infusing the character with dignity not readily given to colonial subjects. Mlambo brings out Halima's spiritedness, which is unexpected from an African woman of that time. M.R. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170810185
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	09/10/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,114,676

Videos