Afterlife

Shortly before World War I, fate brings the main characters together on the East Coast of Africa. Hamza and Ilyas serve on the side of German soldiers — and return home. Afia is in the care of a strict family, where she is tortured for her ability to read. The paths of the young people cross, and they try to build an ordinary life, but the shadow of the impending war threatens to destroy their fragile world. Meaningless malice and the complex relationships between oppressors and the oppressed, deep love, cruelty, and the consequences of colonial policies — in the new novel by the 2021 Nobel laureate in literature. "Afterlife" has received wide recognition for its description of the little-studied topic of the lives of Africans kidnapped to fight for Europe. It is being published in Russian for the first time.