Travelers: A Novel

by Helon Habila Narrated by Mirron Willis

Overview

A startlingly imaginative exploration of the African diaspora in Europe, by one of our most acclaimed international writers.



A Nigerian graduate student who has made his home in America knows what it means to strike out for new shores. When his wife proposes that he accompany her to Berlin, where she has been awarded a prestigious arts fellowship, he has his reservations: "I knew every departure is a death, every return a rebirth. Most changes happen unplanned, and they always leave a scar."



In Berlin, Habila's central character finds himself thrown into contact with a community of African immigrants and refugees whose lives previously seemed distant from his own, but to which he is increasingly drawn. The walls between his privileged, secure existence and the stories of these other Africans on the move soon crumble, and his sense of identity begins to dissolve as he finds that he can no longer separate himself from others' horrors, or from Africa.



A lean, expansive, heart-rending exploration of loss and of connection, Travelers inscribes unforgettable signposts-both unsettling and luminous-marking the universal journey in pursuit of love and home.

Editorial Reviews

Guardian - Anthony Cummins

"The novel’s unassuming title is suggestive of [Helon] Habila’s cool, open-minded approach to a hot-button subject. While he leaves us in little doubt of the horrors his characters have escaped, he seldom invites us to gawp. Adroitly teasing out the rich quiddity of his characters’ diverse journeys, he instead makes the simple yet valuable point that refugees’ lives are as irreducibly complex as anyone else’s."

EastAfrican

"Travellers is a rich mosaic of African migrant experiences."

Vu Tran

"A moving and eye-opening novel that captures our global political moment and plumbs the many layers of life in exile, of people who are forever bereft in their 'traveling'. Helon Habila writes with the eye of a journalist, the tools of an artist, and the heart of a sober and compassionate witness."

The New Yorker

"The book’s elaborate depiction of a range of personal sacrifices brings into focus the human tragedies obscured by statistics and discussions of public policy."

African Arguments - Samira Sawlani

"Habila has outdone himself, giving his characters the dignity which the media often fails to."

Madeleine Thien

"Unforgettable. Helon Habila writes of individual lives—pulled apart by our wars, our failed states and our deepest fears—with insight and searing compassion."

Elliot Ackerman

"I enjoyed Travelers immensely. Habila has written a pressure cooker of a story, an urgent novel that contends with the rootlessness of our world."

BBC - Jane Ciabattari

"Habila’s latest is a resonant, relevant novel."

Lisa Ko

"Urgent, deeply empathetic, and resisting easy answers, Travelers follows the interconnected lives of African immigrants and refugees in Europe and examines the meanings of freedom, diaspora and home. Habila is a masterful storyteller, and this novel a riveting testament to the power of fiction."

Aminatta Forna

"At once intimate and expansive, Travelers captivated me from the very first pages."

Leila Aboulela

"This novel has all the weight of art with the sting of breaking news.… I loved this book. It is indeed [Helon] Habila at his best."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172424755
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	11/05/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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