Always Another Country. Sisonke Msimang
-
A MEMOIR OF EXILE AND HOME
Born in exile to a South African guerrilla father and a working mother, Sisonke Msimang is constantly on the move, from Zambia to Kenya to Canada and beyond. Always the outsider, Sisonke develops a 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. Always Another Country is a search for belonging and identity: a warm and intimate story, and a testament to sisterhood and family bonds.
-
Praise for Always Another Country
‘Sisonke Msimang’s Always Another Country is my favourite kind of memoir, so lyrical and dreamlike that it reads like a novel. It’s an artful meditation on exile and return, womanhood and motherhood unfolding against the backdrop of post-apartheid South African politics’
TAIYE SELASI, author of New York Times bestseller Ghana Must Go
‘Sisonke Msimang kindles a new fire in our store of memoir, a fire that will warm and singe and sear for a long, long while’
NJABULO S. NDEBELE, author of Fools and Other Stories and The Cry of Winnie Mandela
‘If you read Sisonke Msimang’s memoir you go on a brave and intimate journey with her. Msimang delivers a deep call for fierce courage in the face of hypocrisy and, no matter where we come from or where we go, compassion in the face of our shared humanity’
YEWANDE OMOTOSO, author of Bom Boy and The Woman Next Door
‘Brutally and uncompromisingly honest, Sisonke’s beautifully crafted storytelling enriches the already extraordinary pool of young African women writers of our time’
GRAÇA MACHEL
‘A lyrical and admirably subtle exploration of how elusive our place in the world is: a reader’s delight’
EUSEBIUS MCKAISER, author of Run, Racist, Run
‘Like many exiles, Msimang has a yearning for stability, and her energetic and emotive narration add intimacy and poignancy to her recollections. An irresistible read’
Farmer’s Weekly
‘Always Another Country is a chronicle of a coming of age, for both a woman and a young democracy. Sisonke Msimang is one of the celebrated voices commenting on the South African present – often humorously, sometimes deeply movingly’
Essays of Africa
‘A memoir of a life in exile, Sisonke Msimang is poignant and humorous as she recalls a peripatetic life away from apartheid-era South Africa, while self-aware and reflective as she navigates the growing distance between the politics of resistance and the practicalities of the ruling’
QUARTZ, Quartz’s favourite Africa books of 2017
‘Msimang is a masterful storyteller. Her memoir cements her place as one of the country’s most beloved writers. At heart, Always Another Country is a love story and a tribute to all the places she’s called home. The form and content of Always Another Country complement each other beautifully; the result is a text that not only draws you in, but holds you there’
The Daily Vox
‘Every South African who wants to define their own path to the future must read this book and hear this voice. Sisonke challenges us not to cry for help, but to scream for change’
JAY NAIDOO
‘As a deeply personal account of a waiting and a longing for life and freedom enveloped in finally returning home, it is second to none. Msimang dances between the pages, moving effortlessly between personal reflection and the prose of history and context. It is personal. And it must be read’
AZAD ESSA, IOL News
‘Msimang animates each locale with the kind of deft precision that make the cities, towns and countries characters unto themselves. Msimang’s debut memoir is triumphant mostly because it is beautiful and honest’
The Con Magazine
‘Sisonke Msimang’s book has joined the chorus of black women who have used memoir and autobiography to tell their stories in order to defy the erasure of their lives and significance. If you appreciate the dance between memory, fiction, history and nostalgia (with a dash of vulnerability for good measure), Always Another Country is highly recommended’
ATHAMBILE MASOLA, Mail & Guardian
‘The story is riveting and keeps you wanting to dip back in for more. The use of language is a formidable force to be reckoned with – sentences are skillfully, beautifully constructed and I often found myself going back to be lost in pull of the words’
Nasty Women
‘Filled with love, hope, uncertainty, and dreams, Msimang takes us on a journey through Zambia, Kenya, Canada, the USA, to South Africa in the 1990s. The book is a tribute to her parents whose love for each other and their family glows through the pages’
Writers Write
-
SISONKE MSIMANG (Swaziland, 1974) is one of the most exciting new voices in literature. She is a South African writer, speaker and political analyst. Always Another Country is her literary debut. Sisonke Msimang was raised in Zambia, Kenya and Canada, before going to the USA, where she studied Political Science at Macalester College. Now based in Perth, Australia, she is Program Director for the Centre for Stories, from where she travels regularly to the USA, South Africa and other countries. She contributes to publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian and The Huffington Post, and has over 20,000 followers on Twitter (@Sisonkemsimang). Her TED Talk, ‘If a story moves you, act on it’, has been viewed over a million times.
-
AUTHOR
‘I wanted to write a story about the normal things in life: falling in and out of love, having a broken heart, fighting with friends, making up again. I wanted to show that this too is Africa: tiny stories about normal life that Africans and migrants can relate to, but also many other people, wherever they are from and wherever they are in the world.’
PUBLISHER
‘We are thrilled to be publishing Always Another Country. Sisonke Msimang has an incredibly strong voice—the voice of a new generation of Global Citizens. She tells a unique story that has it all: it’s intelligent, honest, moving, compelling, funny, philosophical and, above all, inspiring. Sisonke Msimang truly is an important author—I just love her book from the bottom of my heart.’
-
Sisonke
Msimang
Always
Another
Country
A Memoir of Exile and Home
WORLD EDITIONS
New York, London, Amsterdam
-
Published in the USA in 2018 by World Editions LLC, New York
Published in the UK in 2018 by World Editions LTD, London
World Editions
New York/London/Amsterdam
Copyright © Sisonke Msimang, 2017
Author’s photographs cover and inside © Nick White, Perth, Australia
This book is memoir. Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.