The Orchard of Lost Souls
First edition
AuthorNadifa Mohamed
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreHistorical novel
PublisherSimon & Schuster
Publication date
September 2013
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pages352 pp (1st hardcover edition)
ISBN9781471115295
Preceded byBlack Mamba Boy 
Followed byThe Fortune Men 

The Orchard of Lost Souls is a 2013 novel by the Somali-British author Nadifa Mohamed. It is set in Somalia on the eve of the civil war.[1] Her second book, coming four years after her award-winning debut work Black Mamba Boy (2009), it was published by Simon & Schuster.[2][3]

Reception

Reviewing The Orchard of Lost Souls in The Independent, Arifa Akbar said: "If Mohamed's first novel was about fathers and sons ... this one is essentially about mothers and daughters."[4] Aminatta Forna wrote in The New York Times: "In both 'Black Mamba Boy' and 'The Orchard of Lost Souls,' Nadifa Mohamed — generationally at a remove from the events she describes — shows how the echo of war reverberates down the generations, and why every nation needs its storytellers: someone to, if not make sense of events, then order them so that sense may be drawn."[5] Anita Sethi's review in The Observer concluded: "This novel shows its author blossoming into her talent with her own innovative, at times pulse-quickening style, distilling startling language from loss."[6]

Awards

In 2014, The Orchard of Lost Souls won the Somerset Maugham Award and was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.[7][8]

References

  1. ↑ Jaggi, Maya (14 September 2013), "The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed – review. The Betty Trask award winner takes on a complex history of Somalian civil unrest with a focus on women", The Guardian.
  2. ↑ "The Orchard of Lost Souls". The Lady. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  3. ↑ Akbar, Arifa (17 August 2013). "Mothers and Daughters at War in the Cracked Horn of Africa". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 August 2013. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  4. ↑ Akbar, Arifa (16 August 2013). "Book review: The Orchard of Lost Souls, By Nadifa Mohamed". The Independent.
  5. ↑ Forna, Aminatta (21 March 2014). "Daughters of Revolution". The New York Times.
  6. ↑ Sethi, Anita (18 August 2013). "The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed – review | Nadifa Mohamed justifies her place on this year's Granta list with a powerful and atmospheric tale of women and loss". The Observer.
  7. ↑ Nadifa Mohamed page at The Guardian.
  8. ↑ "Dylan Thomas Prize: Swansea University reveals longlist", BBC News, South West Wales, 22 July 2014.
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