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The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo
A Novel
Contributors
By Peter Orner
Formats and Prices
- On Sale
- May 16, 2007
- Page Count
- 336 pages
- Publisher
- Back Bay Books
- ISBN-13
- 9780316066334
Price
$21.99Price
$28.99 CADFormat
Format:
- Trade Paperback $21.99 $28.99 CAD
- ebook $9.99 $12.99 CAD
Buy from Other Retailers:
Set in Namibia just after independence in the early 1990s, Peter Orner’s first novel is a chronicle of the long days, short loves, and cold nights at Goas, an all-boys Catholic primary school so deep in the veld that “even the baboons feel sorry for us.”
Though physically isolated in semi-desert beneath a relentless sun, the people of Goas create an alternate, more fertile universe through the stories they tell each other. The book’s central character is Mavala Shikongo, a combat veteran who fought in Namibia’s long war for independence against South Africa.
She has recently returned to the school — with a child, but no husband. Mavala is modern, restless, and driven, in sharp contrast to conservative Goas. All the male teachers (including a bumbling but observant volunteer from Cincinnati) try not to fall in love with her. Everyone fails — immediately and miserably. This extraordinary first novel explores the history of a place through the stories of its people. But above all it’s about the fleetingness of love and the endurance of fellowship.
Though physically isolated in semi-desert beneath a relentless sun, the people of Goas create an alternate, more fertile universe through the stories they tell each other. The book’s central character is Mavala Shikongo, a combat veteran who fought in Namibia’s long war for independence against South Africa.
She has recently returned to the school — with a child, but no husband. Mavala is modern, restless, and driven, in sharp contrast to conservative Goas. All the male teachers (including a bumbling but observant volunteer from Cincinnati) try not to fall in love with her. Everyone fails — immediately and miserably. This extraordinary first novel explores the history of a place through the stories of its people. But above all it’s about the fleetingness of love and the endurance of fellowship.
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"A starvation diary about desire, with as much sexual tension as a bodicebuster? Orner hits the right notes and no others."Mark Schone, New York Times Book Revew
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"Peter Orner's debut reads like a perfectly formed masterpiece of such idiosyncraticAlexandra Fuller, author of
voice and story that I can't imagine my shelves now without it." -
"Mavala Shikongo is one of the most deftly rendered and unforgettable characters in recent fiction. The men of Goas fall in love with her and the reader is helpless, too--she is a revolution unto herself. Orner's book is always elegant and always true, and its wistful and even hallucinatory mood haunts the mind for months after finishing it."Dave Eggers
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"Lyrical, comical, full-blown . . . A gifted short-story writer gives us his first booklength work of fiction, and does so with flair and panache."Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune
