Two Tragedies

I recently finished reading 2 books, both tragedies. La Bastarda by Trifonia Melba Obono, is set Equatorial Guinea. Okomo lives in a very traditional society (read patriarchal) where women do not question and are expected to marry and have many children (preferably sons). She is called a bastard because her Dad left her mother (he is therefore disreputable and a scoundrel) and she is forbidden to look for him or even talk about him. She loves her uncle who has been banished from the village because he is gay. Okomo discovers this when she discovers that she is gay too. This is more a novella that ends on a hopeful note – even though she has effectively been banished, she is free to live her life in the forest with people she loves.

Tropic of Violence by Nathacha Appanah, is set in Mayotte (a French island archipelago off the coast of Mozambique. The Comoros Islands and Madagascar are near neighbours. Many refugees from these countries arrive by boat, seeking a better life and protection by the French state. Tropic is a tale of a young man who is abandoned as a baby by his immigrant young mother and adopted. But then his adopted mother dies unexpectedly and he is left to fend for himself. The immigrants come to mainly obtain better healthcare but end up living in terrible conditions in hastily erected shanty towns. One of these shanty towns is called Gaza – the conditions are horrific, just as in the real Gaza in occupied Palestine. The events that follow his mother’s death are terribly sad. The story itself is told from multiple viewpoints and is very elegantly written.