First published 2023
Twelve-year-old Yusuf knows only the boundaries of his family home and his father's hotel. His world shifts when Uncle Aziz arrives for another visit. The traveling merchant and shop owner takes Yusuf on what becomes a years-long journey across unfamiliar territories. Yusuf does not yet understand he has been sold to pay his family's debts. His carefree childhood ends as he travels with his uncle through landscapes he has never seen. The physical journey across the continent becomes something deeper as Yusuf discovers parts of himself he never knew existed. His travels force him to confront questions about who he is and where he belongs. This Nobel Prize winner tells the story of an Africa most readers have never encountered, following one boy's passage from innocence into a more complex understanding of himself and his place in the world.
Genres: historical-fiction, african-literature, coming-of-age, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Africa
Period: 20th-century
304 pages · Hardcover · Wydawnictwo Poznańskie