08/30/2021
An intrepid Hadrami girl rescues her father from mythical foes in this striking if slightly cluttered debut. Aisha’s father, Ali, is a restless widower fisherman with a knack for finding the best hauls off the cost of Mombasa, Kenya. When he does not return one evening, everyone assumes he has been lost at sea. Aisha, however, rejects this idea and decides to set off in search of him. With the help of a talking cat, Hamza, and the boat of bones he provides her, she sets out into the ocean and faces down several enemies, including Baba wa Papa, a massive talking shark. She brings a nonresponsive Ali back to land where magical healer Zubeir cuts open Ali’s heart and removes his yearning for the sea. Ali, now at peace on land, and encouraged by his mother, Swafiya, who has recently remarried, plans Aisha’s wedding to an egg merchant. But Aisha wants more adventure and tries to track down Hamza, who disappeared while Aisha hoisted Ali ashore. After dead ends and frustrations, she makes progress in the search with unlikely allies, but finds herself facing alarming danger. While the loose plot threads and continuous introduction of folkloric creatures don’t all cohere, Bajaber’s depictions of Aisha’s daring episodes and her feminist personality consistently shimmer. Fans of modern fairy tales will find much to appreciate. (Oct.)
Astonishing. . . . Aisha is everything you want in a heroine: cunning and headstrong, but also fallible. . . . There are stories within stories here, bursting with truth and wisdom, honoring the rich oral traditions of the Hadrami. . . . Bajaber is a born storyteller, pulling you along Aisha’s epic quest to know her father’s fate. . . . This book deserves to be huge.”—The New York Times Book Review
“With sparse, sharply written prose and surreal imaginings, this vivid coming-of-age novel depicts the complexity of childhood, the importance of family, and the thirst for adventure.”—BuzzFeed
“[A] glorious sea-infused debut. . . . This is a novel as much about a young girl’s learning to trust her own courage as it is about loyalty, faith, and family. The rich descriptions of the city, its people, and the terrifying evocation of a sea full of monsters make this a riveting read.”—Yvonne C. Garrett, The Brooklyn Rail
“Bajaber’s writing is matter-of-fact and gem-cut. . . . This debut carries the invigorating mystery of the sea, its unpredictable leap and roil.”—Vulture
“Bajaber’s writing, imaginative and poetic, brings us to the wrenching heart of Aisha’s coming of age.”—Lit Hub
“Bajaber weaves together the mythical and the real and uses the cadences of the oral storytelling traditions of Kenya to create a remarkable coming- of-age narrative. . . . [The House of Rust] is imaginative with its personality-infused crows and goats and empathetic in its dramatization of difficult choices.”—Booklist
“This is a novel of tradition, ritual, and mystical adventure. . . . [A] tale rife with creatures and immersed in the Hadrami culture of Kenya.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Bajaber’s depictions of Aisha’s daring episodes and her feminist personality consistently shimmer. Fans of modern fairy tales will find much to appreciate.”—Publishers Weekly
“A novel stuffed to bursting with marvels and fairy-tale delights. Khadija Abdalla Bajaber casts a mighty spell.”—Kelly Link
“What an enchanting novel. Khadija Abdalla Bajaber has written a magical tale filled with eccentric characters who are sure to endure in the halls of literature. Here is a new writer of fierce powers, who thrills and delights.”—Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
“Spellbinding freehand brushstrokes of life, love, yearning and loss in a Mombasa mediated by the mercuriality of Eastern Africa’s Swahili Seas—the Indian Ocean to some. Within the intricacies of timeless worlds, scored with the imprint of ghosts, and shape-changing beings, our protagonist Aisha sets out on a magical skeleton boat, in the company of a talking cat, to rescue her beloved fisherman father who has gone missing. It is a story of the clash of destinies told in the cadences and rhythms of place that will enchant the reader. Mombasa, Kenya-based poet, Khadija Abdalla Bajaber is a radiant addition to the constellations of transcultural literature.”—Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
“Khadija Bajaber writes with a quiet, tender ferocity. Her sentences are lasers, probing the crenellations and crevices of the human heart. She’s not afraid to dive into the wildest reaches of imagination, and she has the confidence and technical mastery to take us on the ride. The House of Rust is as labyrinthine, magical and multilayered as Mombasa itself. Nothing is what it seems—crows engage in complex political struggle, goats keep their counsel to subvert human supremacy, humans seek cats to navigate their epic voyages. If, as Bajaber writes, Mombasa has a hundred eyes for every mouth, this book gives every eye its moment. It’s an astonishing and exhilarating debut.”—Shailja Patel
“Khadija Abdalla Bajaber’s command of language and story is transcendent. The House of Rust is an immersive experience in Kenyan mythology, and an honest exploration of loss and family from a uniquely talented writer.”—Wayétu Moore
“The House of Rust is a gorgeous coming-of-age story, and I’m going to be obsessing about it for quite some time. . . . I wanted to lose myself forever in the dark spaces of Khadija Abdalla Bajaber’s prose.”—Charlie Jane Anders
10/08/2021
DEBUT In this phantasmagorical debut, Mombasa-born author Bajaber limns a traditional coming-of-age story, then raises it to Odyssean proportions. Aisha has been joined at the hip to her father Ali since her mother's death. When Ali disappears on a fishing trip, Aisha feels compelled to brave the ferocious sea, in a mystical ship made of bones, in search of him. Readers should suspend disbelief and lean into the fact that Aisha's companion on this quest is a talking cat, and that she must outwit three monsters who will taunt and test her. This tale ratchets up slowly but reaches propulsive intensity as Aisha's love for her father spurs her on past seemingly insurmountable odds. In the process, Aisha blossoms from naïve child to young adult, unafraid to eschew her family's expectations for Muslim girls or an arranged marriage to her childhood friend Hassan; instead, she chooses a life of independence and freedom. VERDICT Inspired by African folktales, Bajaber imagined a magical realist world that earned her the first Graywolf Press Africa prize for her manuscript long before it was published. With its spunky protagonist, foreboding atmosphere, and supernatural elements, this novel would appeal to readers of Karen Russell's genre-defying Swamplandia and would also be a perfect selection for young adults eager to broaden their literary horizons.—Sally Bissell, formerly at Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL
12/01/2021
When her father doesn't return from a fishing trip, Aisha sets sail from modern Mombasa, Kenya, to find him. After facing down three terrifying monsters with only a talking cat by her side and a boat made of bones under her feet, Aisha returns home with her father to a life both unchanged and irrevocably altered. As her grandmother and gossiping neighbors, unaware of Aisha's journey, accelerate matchmaking plans and the wild animals attempt to awaken the snake prince Almassi to protect them from the young monster slayer, Aisha hunts for the elusive House of Rust and its promise of independence from her stifling future—until the clash of all three plans becomes inevitable. With breathtakingly vivid imagery, unforgettable characters, and emotionally charged prose, this story feels timeless. Through a protagonist who finds the mystical more tangible than the real, this novel explores themes of power, faith, duty, and the reciprocity of love and kindness as deftly as Aisha wields her gutting knife. VERDICT A richly layered coming-of-age novel steeped in magical realism and folklore, perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Gods of Jade and Shadow and Katherine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale, as well as for high school collections, especially those supporting creative writing curricula.—Madeline Newquist, Center for Fiction, Brooklyn
2021-07-28
Join a girl and a talking cat on a magical realist sea voyage.
In this debut novel, Aisha, a Mombasa girl, goes to sea on a boat made of a fish skeleton to find her missing father. Accompanying her is a wise, skinny, yellow, and very talkative cat, Hamza. This is magical realism, Kenya-style. The author reaches into the mythology of her Hadrami culture to conjure talking animals and discursive sea creatures as she charts her heroine’s journey from home and back. “There are things in the water that could eat you alive,” Hamza tells Aisha. “Though I’m sure you already know this and quite well.” (Hamza is a bit of a smart aleck.) This is a novel of tradition, ritual, and mystical adventure: “On the tables of kings, candle wax had dripped down the cat’s skull and whiskers. An obedient, trained creature, but at heart: a philosopher and spy.” And a cat. Aisha sails away with her feline friend, pulling us into a series of dialogues and riddles, few of them with other humans. Then they return, and things get strange. Even if you’re not a fan of magical realism, this window into Hadrami culture should at least stoke your curiosity.
An adventure tale rife with creatures and immersed in the Hadrami culture of Kenya.
