Author: Moore, Wayetu
Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
Published on 2 April 2020 by Pushkin Press (ONE) in the United Kingdom.
Paperback | 368 pages
129 x 197 x 26 | 296g
'Wayétu Moore is an inspiration . . . her book is a gift' Imbolo Mbue 'The book is unforgettable . . . irresistibly evocative and fierce. She Would Be King is a masterfully wrought alternate history of magical black resistance' Star Tribune'This novel dazzles with beauty and transcendent, transformative humanity' Sarah Jessica ParkerIn the west African village of Lai, red-haired Gbessa is cursed at birth and exiled on suspicion of being a witch. Bitten by a viper and left for dead, she survives to discover a new life with a group of African American settlers in the colony of Monrovia.
Then Gbessa meets two extraordinary others; June Dey - a man of unusual strength, born into slavery on a plantation in Virginia - and Norman Aragon, the child of a white British coloniser and a Maroon slave from the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, who can fade from sight at will.
Soon all three realise that they are cursed - or perhaps, uniquely gifted. Together they protect the weak and vulnerable, but only Gbessa can salvage the tense relationship between the settlers and the indigenous tribes.
>In her transcendent debut, Wayétu Moore illuminates the tumultuous roots of Liberia, blending history and magical realism in a profound tale of resistance and humanity.