Always Another Country

A New York Times Staff Favorite and one of The Globe's 100 Favourite Books

“Brutally and uncompromisingly honest, Sisonke’s beautifully crafted storytelling enriches the already extraordinary pool of young African women writers of our time.” —Graça Machel, widow of former South African president Nelson Mandela

Born in exile, in Zambia, to a guerrilla father and a working mother, Sisonke Msimang is constantly on the move. Her parents, talented and highly educated, travel from Zambia to Kenya and Canada and beyond with their young family.

Always the outsider, and against a backdrop of racism and xenophobia, Sisonke develops her keenly perceptive view of the world. In this sparkling account of a young girl’s path to womanhood, Sisonke interweaves her personal story with her political awakening in America and Africa, her euphoria at returning to the new South Africa, and her disillusionment with the new elites. Confidential and reflective, Always Another Country is a search for belonging and identity: a warm and intimate story that will move many readers.

Prologue
Burley Court
S.E.X.
Gogo Lindi
The odour of teeth
Kenya
O! Canada
The bike
The return to South Africa
College Girl
Black girl in America
The fire before freedom
Freedom
Jason
Folie à deux
Home
New blacks, old whites
Simon
Aids
Amakwerekwere
Congo Road
Becoming a mother
The violence
Failure
Why I write
Mothers and daughters
The end
Acknowledgements