The House of Rust

De: Khadija Abdalla Bajaber

Narrado por: Waceke Wambaa

The first Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize winner, a story of a girl’s fantastical sea voyage to rescue her father.

The House of Rust is an enchanting novel about a Hadrami girl in Mombasa. When her fisherman father goes missing, Aisha takes to the sea on a magical boat made of a skeleton to rescue him. She is guided by a talking scholar’s cat (and soon crows, goats, and other animals all have their say, too). On this journey Aisha meets three terrifying sea monsters. After she survives a final confrontation with Baba wa Papa, the father of all sharks, she rescues her own father and hopes that life will return to normal. But at home, things only grow stranger.

Khadija Abdalla Bajaber’s debut is a magical realist coming-of-age tale told through the lens of the Swahili and diasporic Hadrami culture in Mombasa, Kenya. Richly descriptive and written with an imaginative hand and sharp eye for unusual detail, The House of Rust is a memorable novel by a thrilling new voice.

©2022 Khadija Abdalla Bajaber (P)2022 Recorded Books

Deep dive and emersive into the culture

Not necessarily my go to style for books, so take my Review with a punch of salt. the initial introductory bit and the second half are a bit sloggy, but very emersive into the culture. the rest of the first half is beautifully detailed and has a lot of action, though the MC is whiney at points. Over all, it's a thought project to have the reader learn the MC's story, and makes the reader think of their own story of their life.

its drags a little, but not a bad listen

it kind of felt like 2 books making for weird rising and falling action and a book that feels very long. that said it might just be that I am so use to western stories, and there were parts of the book I really loved making it a worthwhile read

What is this even about?

I started listening to this book with much anticipation as the description sounded wonderful! I listened about an hour and assumed that my mind must have been wondering because I had no earthly idea what was going on. I restarted the book and have decided to call it quits. I cannot get interested. The narrator has a nice voice but maybe that's what's losing me or something. Anyone else feeling the same? Maybe reading the actual book would be better?