The University of Wisconsin Press

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Autobiographical Fiction / Africa / Lesbian Interest

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Where Bones Dance An English Girlhood, An African War Nina Newington "Newington's prose is gorgeous-beautiful, difficult, painful, and lyric. It's poetry all the time."–Judith Katz, author of The Escape Artist In this stunning debut novel, a child dissects the darkness at the heart of her British diplomatic family. Living in Nigeria on the brink of civil war, Anna–also known as Jake–becomes blood brothers with Dave, the Korean American daughter of a C.I.A. operative. They do push-ups, collect pornography, and plot lives of unmarried freedom while around them a country disintegrates. Luscious, terrifying, and raw, Nigeria itself becomes a lesson in endurance, suffering, love. Stories are layered upon stories: Anna's grandmother tells stories about life as a white woman on the Gold Coast; the clairvoyant and closeted "Aunt" Elsie gives Anna a story of transformation to hold onto in the coming tumult of adolescence.Yet Where Bones Dance also spirals down to the stories that are not told–sexual abuse, the myth of benign colonialism, the chaos of postcolonial Africa. Sensual and fantastical by turns, this moving, funny, immensely readable book delivers an understanding of the interplay of sexuality, gender, race, and war that is sophisticated beyond the years of its intrepid narrator. "I wish Dad would come home. I send him a thought in the air. To Biafra. He's flying in a plane with Prince Richard. It is dark except for the green light of the instrument panel. They are sitting close together in the little airplane. Prince Richard is steering. It is too dark to see except when a gun fires and then the ground is covered in dead bodies and the animals are taking legs and arms away in the bush to eat and the animals' eyes are green and shining."–excerpt from Where Bones Dance Nina Newington was born in Hong Kong and as a child lived in Germany, Israel, Nigeria, and Britain. Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies, including New Writings by Women: Sinister Wisdom and The American Voice. She lives in the hills of western Massachusetts. Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.) Of Related Interest Nowhere in Africa An Autobiographical Novel Stefanie Zweig, translated by Marlies Comjean Somewhere in Germany An Autobiographical Novel Stefanie Zweig, translated by Marlies Comjean

April 2007 LC: 2006031769 PR 248 pp.  6 x 9 Cloth $26.95 t ISBN 978-0-299-22260-4 ADD TO CART

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