A review by johndiconsiglio
Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah

4.0

Dr. Livingstone, I presume? Actually, his bones. They’re at the center of this inventive novel by Zimbabwe’s Gappah that sees colonialism through Black characters. She draws on the explorer’s real journals & imagines the voices of the African attendants who carried his remains across the continent to be buried in England. It’s structured around 2 narrators: a headstrong cook Livingstone bought from slavery who serves as a “road wife” for one of the company, and an educated ex-slave self-righteously flouting his Christianity. The cook’s the more enjoyable traveling companion, but the pompous apostle has some surprises. A trip worth taking.