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Cover of The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah

The Book of Memory

Petina Gappah

  • 274 pages · about 5 hours
  • First published 2001
  • 13 editions
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1 About this book

Memory, the narrator of Petina Gappah's The Book of Memory, is an albino woman languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Zimbabwe, after being sentenced for murder. As part of her appeal, her lawyer insists that she write down what happened as she remembers it.

The death penalty is a mandatory sentence for murder, and Memory is, both literally and metaphorically, writing for her life. As her story unfolds, Memory reveals that she has been tried and convicted for the murder of Lloyd Hendricks, her adopted father. But who was Lloyd Hendricks? Why does Memory feel no remorse for his death? And did everything happen exactly as she remembers?

  • Africa
  • Prisoners
  • Memory
  • Albinos and albinism
  • Women prisoners
  • Psychological fiction
  • Social life and customs
  • Women

2 About Petina Gappah

Born 1971

Petina Gappah (born 1971) is a Zimbabwean lawyer and writer. She writes in English, though she also draws on Shona, her first language. In 2016, she was named African Literary Person of the Year by Brittle Paper. In 2017 she had a DAAD Artist-in-Residence fellowship in Berlin.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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