The House of Rust, Khadija Abdalla Bajaber
The House of Rust, Khadija Abdalla Bajaber
2 Rating(s)
List: $25.99 | Sale: $18.20
Club: $12.99

The House of Rust

Author: Khadija Abdalla Bajaber

Narrator: Waceke Wambaa

Unabridged: 10 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 02/22/2022


Synopsis

The first Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize winner, a story of a girl’s fantastical sea voyage to rescue her father.

The 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 scholar’s 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 Bajaber’s 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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Charlie on May 24, 2021

I've never read anything quite like House of Rust before, and I'm going to be obsessing about it for quite some time. This is the story of a girl named Aisha whose father has gotten lost at sea — she goes to rescue him on a boat made out of bones, with a talking cat for company. And that's just the......more

Goodreads review by Viviana on January 13, 2022

I got lost a little in the plot. This book could truly be 70 pages shorter in my opinion. The author is a brilliant writer. Very descriptive. It’s just written in a style I’m not quite used to. And I feel like some characters were forgettable in the way that they were introduced and reintroduced thr......more

Goodreads review by Emily on January 26, 2023

(3.5/5) This is a hard book to review, because there were so many moments that I absolutely loved, but the overall structure and pacing is a little strange. As the blurb suggests, it is a coming-of-age story following a young Hadrami girl named Aisha from Mombasa, Kenya. However, the part of the stor......more

Goodreads review by Goran on October 22, 2022

WINNER OF THE 2022 URSULA K. LE GUIN PRIZE FOR FICTION A magnificent read, blending mythopoeic fiction with a sort of young adult coming of age story. I found it hard to immerse myself in the story because I was often distracted by its gorgeous imagery and prose. The book creates a vivid image of i......more

Goodreads review by Diletta on March 28, 2022

Poi un giorno capiremo perché nessunx scrive storie con animali parlanti. Prendete questo romanzo: bello, fiabesco, mistico, stile pazzesco. INOLTRE ci sono gli animali parlanti. Potessi darei venti stelline.......more