num_pages: 272
description: The first Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize winner a story of a girls fantastical sea voyage to rescue her fatherThe House of Rust is an enchanting novel about a Hadrami girl in Mombasa. When her fisherman father goes missing Aisha takes to the sea on a magical boat made of a skeleton to rescue him. She is guided by a talking scholars cat (and soon crows goats and other animals all have their say too). On this journey Aisha meets three terrifying sea monsters. After she survives a final confrontation with Baba wa Papa the father of all sharks she rescues her own father and hopes that life will return to normal. But at home things only grow stranger.Khadija Abdalla Bajabers debut is a magical realist coming-of-age tale told through the lens of the Swahili and diasporic Hadrami culture in Mombasa Kenya. Richly descriptive and written with an imaginative hand and sharp eye for unusual detail The House of Rust is a memorable novel by a thrilling new voice.
language: English
title: The House of Rust
publisher: Graywolf Press