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This book is featured in our Refugees and Displaced People page, a collection of the best books to understand the courage and plight of forced migration, including books for children of stories and issues
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Product Description
A moving portrait of the life journey and all the romance, heartache and grief that has helped to make Sisonke Msimang the writer, activist, mother and woman she is today.
Sisonke Msimang was born in exile, the daughter of South African freedom fighters. Always Another Country is the story of a young girl’s path to womanhood - a journey that took her from Africa to America and back again, then on to a new home in Australia.
Frank, fierce and insightful, she reflects candidly on the abuse she suffered as a child, the naive, heady euphoria of returning at last to her parents’ homeland - and her disillusionment with present-day South Africa and its new elites. Sisonke Msimang is a bold new voice on feminism, race and politics - in her beloved South Africa, in Australia, and around the world.
Industry Reviews
`Few of us have felt the grinding force of history as consciously or as constantly as Sisonke Msimang. Her story is a timely insight into a life in which the gap between the great world and the private realm is vanishingly narrow and it bears hard lessons about how fragile our hopes and dreams can be.' * Tim Winton *
`Brutally and uncompromisingly honest, Sisonke's beautifully crafted storytelling enriches the already extraordinary pool of young African women writers of our time.' * Graca Machel, Minister for Education and Culture of Mozambique *
`A brave and intimate journey. Msimang delivers a deep call for fierce courage in the face of hypocrisy and compassion when faced with our shared humanity.' * Yewande Omotoso, author of The Woman Next Door *
`Sisonke Msimang kindles a new fire in our store of memoir, a fire that will warm and singe and sear for a long, long while.' * Njabulo S. Ndebele, author The Cry of Winnie Mandela *
`Msimang pours herself into these pages with a voice that is molten steel; her radiant warmth and humour sit alongside her fearlessness in naming and refusing injustice. Msimang is a masterful memoirist, a gifted writer, and she comes bearing a message that is as urgent and timely as it is eternal.' * Sarah Krasnostein *
`It is rare to hear from such a voice as Sisonke's-powerful, accomplished, unabashed and brave. This is a gripping and important memoir that is also self-aware and funny, revealing the depths of a country we've mostly only seen through a colonial perspective.' * Alice Pung *
`It is not possible to do this book justice in so few words...Always Another Country is eloquent and powerful. Msimang's explication of what it means to be from - but not of - a place is profoundly moving. Msimang deserves to be widely read and fans of Roxane Gay and Maxine Beneba Clarke, in particular, will not be disappointed.' * Readings *
'An excellent blend of both the personal and political...a bold memoir...a tale that will sustain itself for generations.' * Books & Publishing *
`[An] eloquent memoir of home, belonging and race politics.' * Big Issue *
`Msimang is a talented and passionate writer, one possessed of an acerbic intelligence...This memoir is also full of warmth and humour.' * Saturday Paper *
`Eloquently, intelligently and passionately written...A gift of gritty reality in a fake news world. [Sisonke's] greatest strength is her willingness to examine concepts such as freedom, racism, gender relations, and the ability of peace and prosperity to exist under conditions of verbal and physical violence. It makes this book an inspiration for all those trying to make some sense of the world in which we find ourselves.' * Otago Daily Times *
`This eloquent, moving and heartfelt memoir will have readers riveted from start to end...Sisonke's passion, idealism and courage beam true from every page.' * WritingWA *
`A graceful memoir.' * New York Times *
`Msimang's graceful memoir is one of those rare books that managed to make me less cynical about the state of literature...It's a coming-of-age story for those children for whom home is marked by more than a single physical location.' * New York Times *
