57. Wrapping up on Non-African Book for 2010

The last book I read that was not authored by an African was Sand Daughter by Sarah Bryant. It chronicles the war between the Knight Templars and Salah ad-Din during the Crusades. Salah ad-Din is seen as the man prophesied to the Djinns and those who believe in this prophecy have travelled to the Holy Land to help him regain Jerusalem. Meanwhile amongst the Franks there is a traitor who, seeking his self interest, uses the name of God to rally support for people to do his bidding. There is a lot of distrust and betrayal in this story and a love story too that keeps turning and twisting so that one cannot predict with certainty how things might possibly turn out.

The author showed that she did much research before penning this novel so that at some points I thought too much information was being given. Very interesting book.

Comments

  1. Geosi7 January 2011 at 11:23

    Interesting book but not sure whether I would pick up this as I have so many African Lit. to read this year. I like the cover picture too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ImageNations7 January 2011 at 11:27

    glad you have more African books to read. Read and read and let others know we write too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Author7 January 2011 at 11:58

    Interesting. I like history and historic fiction. I will speak to you about something in your blog that interests me greatly.

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  4. ImageNations7 January 2011 at 12:13

    Would be waiting...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lara Daniels7 January 2011 at 13:56

    Thanks for sharing this list. I am looking foward to reading 'Our Husband has gone mad again' by Ola Rotimi. Lola Shoneyin's 'Baba Segi's wives' is also on my to-read list.

    ReplyDelete
  6. ImageNations7 January 2011 at 14:05

    I would be waiting for your thoughts Lara...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Kwegyirba7 January 2011 at 16:14

    Sounds veeeeeeeeeeeeeery interesting... I'm tempted.:-)

    ReplyDelete
  8. ImageNations7 January 2011 at 16:43

    be tempted... and move into it...lol.

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  9. Nii7 January 2011 at 19:00

    Nana do you know if this was originally written in English or Arabic? I tried reading a couple of North African novels translated from Arabic to English, but struggled. Some of these books tend to loose something, perhaps that bit of originality and authenticity when translated from Arabic

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  10. Amy8 January 2011 at 15:27

    I've seen this book mentioned a few times now, it certainly sounds well researched and interesting. I find the time period fascinating. Maybe I'll pick this up some day. For now I have a whole pile of other books to work through!

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  11. ImageNations10 January 2011 at 07:44

    @Nii, this was written directly in English. I believe so cos there was no where it was stated that it was a translation, else the translators name would have been stated.

    ReplyDelete
  12. ImageNations10 January 2011 at 07:45

    @Amy, If you are interested in historical fiction and the politics of the middle east, you might like this.

    ReplyDelete

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