Stubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues Fowler

Summary:

When your mother considers another country home, it’s hard to know where you belong. When the people you live among can’t pronounce your name, it’s hard to know exactly who you are. And when your body no longer feels like your own, it’s hard to understand your place in the world.

This is a novel of growing up between cultures, of finding your space within them and of learning to live in a traumatized body. Our stubborn archivist tells her story through history, through family conversations, through the eyes of her mother, her grandmother and her aunt and slowly she begins to emerge into the world, defining her own sense of identity.

Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award

Longlisted for the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize

My Review:

First off a big apology from me. This review should have been out as part of the Blog Tour for the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize last week.

I was so intrigued when the debut novel Stubborn Archivist (Fleet) by Yara Rodrigues Fowler was longlisted for the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize as The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award that I jumped at the chance to review when offered and I am so pleased I did.

What a wondrous story that Yara Rodrigues Fowler has created. The narrator remains anonymous throughout the storyline. It bursts into life from the first page. The narrator is born in South London and has a mother who is Brazilian and a father who is English.

The one aspect that I felt when I started to read was that this was like finding someone’s secret diary and reading about them and their thoughts on their own family. The mix of languages and translations that at times are very poetic.

Through the pages we get to know about the narrator and the women that make up her life. The mix of languages and also cultures makes this such a fabulous read as well as unearthing an exciting new writing voice.

It is at times complex but also she shares her emotions through the pages and even the blank pages are powerful in themselves. The three women that appear are key in the life of the narrator, her mother, and aunt and also her grandmother each have powerful narrative. Throughout I had the sense of the narrator asking about what is home and where is home. Our protagonist is talking to us the reader about the many facets of her life even the moments that bring a laugh or two.

As I have found in my own life stubbornness equates to pure determination and the will to never stop or to never give up. Stubborn Archivist is a pure joy to read.

Shortlist Announcement is made on 7^th April 2020

Winner Announced on 14^th May 2020

 

368 Pages.

Thank you to Martina Ticic (Midas PR) for the review copy of Stubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues Fowler.

Stubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues Fowler was published by Fleet and was published on 6^th February 2020 (Paperback) and is available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary:

When your mother considers another country home, it’s hard to know where you belong. When the people you live among can’t pronounce your name, it’s hard to know exactly who you are. And when your body no longer feels like your own, it’s hard to understand your place in the world.

This is a novel of growing up between cultures, of finding your space within them and of learning to live in a traumatized body. Our stubborn archivist tells her story through history, through family conversations, through the eyes of her mother, her grandmother and her aunt and slowly she begins to emerge into the world, defining her own sense of identity.

Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award

Longlisted for the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize

My Review:

 

 

 

 

Shortlist Announcement is made on 7^th April 2020

Winner Announced on 14^th May 2020

368 Pages.

Thank you to Martina Ticic (Midas PR) for the review copy of Stubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues Fowler.

Stubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues Fowler was published by Fleet and was published on 6^th February 2020 (Paperback) and is available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.