Description

History is a construction. What happens when we bring stories consigned to the margins up to the light? How does that complicate our certainties about who we are, as individuals, as nations, as human beings?

As in her fiction, the essays in Out of the Sun demonstrate Esi Edugyan’s commitment to seeking out the stories of Black lives that history has failed to record. In five wide-ranging essays, written with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in the background, Edugyan reflects on her own identity and experiences. She delves into the history of Western Art and the truths about Black lives that it fails to reveal, and the ways contemporary Black artists are reclaiming and reimagining those lives. She explores and celebrates the legacy of Afrofuturism, the complex and problematic practice of racial passing, the place of ghosts and haunting in the imagination, and the fascinating relationship between Africa and Asia dating back to the 6th Century.

With calm, piercing intelligence, Edugyan asks difficult questions about how we reckon with the past and imagine the future.

Publisher Review

Stunning ... An enlightening, multifaceted and thoroughly engrossing look at what blackness means and has meant through the centuries * Irish Times * In its breadth, beauty and candour, this is a beguiling collection. And if, after reading it you leave with more questions than you started - which might be a complaint in a lesser book - then I suspect it has achieved its aim -- Kuba Shand-Baptiste * Guardian * A remarkable collection of essays on representation, race, identity and history. Edugyan must now be counted as one of the finest essayists of her generation, as well as one of the best novelists -- Matthew D'Ancona Praise for Esi Edugyan: Wondrous ... gripping ... vivid and captivating * Economist * Magnificent and strikingly visual prose * Financial Times * Exquisite * New York Magazine * Edugyan is a magical writer * Washington Post * A towering achievement . . . Edugyan is one of our sharpest and deepest writers * Entertainment Weekly * Strong, beautiful and beguiling * Observer * Poignant and political, Edugyan enjoys taking her readers where they are least expecting to go . . . shines a light on the present as well as the past. * Irish Independent * A pacey yet thoughtful exploration of freedom, and our moral compulsion to act * Spectator * A remarkable collection of essays on representation, race, identity and history. Not surprisingly, Out of the Sun is rich in stories, memory and the warmth of human experience ... gripping ... There are insights, ironies and nuances on every page: Edugyan must now be counted as one of the finest essayists of her generation, as well as one of the best novelists -- Matthew D'Ancona