Petina Gappah reads a chapter from the first part of Out of Darkness, Shining Light, narrated by David Livingstone’s cook Halima.
In the wake of the famous meeting with American journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley, Livingstone and his companions prepare to press on with the hunt for the source of the Nile – despite Halima’s protestations, fears for Livingstone’s health, and uncertainty about her own future and that of her adopted child…

 

Petina Gappah is a Zimabwean lawyer and writer. She is the author of the story collections An Elegy for Easterly and Rotten Row and the novel The Book of Memory, and the recipient of the Guardian First Book Award and the Society of Authors’ McKitterick Prize. As a lawyer she specialises in international trade and development, and lived and worked in Geneva for many years. She is now based in Harare. Out of Darkness, Shining Light is published by Faber & Faber.
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Watch and read our interview with Petina about the creation of Out of Darkness, Shining Light