Review: “Our Memory Like Dust” by Gavin Chait
I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
"How do you wish to be remembered?"
This is a dystopian/sci-fi novel set in Africa (specifically, Senegal) and featuring a lot of local folklore magical realism elements. I repeat: dystopian science-fiction set. in. Africa! How can you not be intrigued by that? It has a varied cast of interesting characters on all places on the spectrum between good and evil - showing how politics and big international conflicts are everything but black and white, and overall rather messy. There are politicians, terrorists, aid workers, economic leaders, a lot of action, some romance, some scheming, and a lot of cool futuristic technology.
But most importantly, this novel turns a lot of contemporary issues extreme to show how they could develop in the future: climate change, refugees, terrorism, data protection and privacy, even Brexit. There is a lot of diversity as well, starting with all of the African characters and continuing with LGBT+ and disabled side characters. I loved that the African countries were empowered and shown thinking of themselves first, standing up to the likes of superpowers like China, Russia and Europe to not let themselves be exploited.
The beginning was a bit rough - told in magical realism mind-reading / torture flashbacks. It was a weird structure that stretched my patience because it was rather unclear. That was the first 80 pages. It took only 20 more for me to completely fall in love. Gavin Chait has a complex and well-done vision of the future world and a unique narrative style that fit very well. With powerful, minimalist descriptions and only little information, he makes his story and the scope of what the characters know about fell very realistic. Even though it was written in such broad strokes and jumped around on the timeline, the reader still feels an emotional connection to the characters. Overall, the style was almost visual, like a documentary - which fit the content very well.
I guess what I am trying to say is: read this book! Get through the rough patch of the first 80 pages and you will not be disappointed!
“Our Memory Like Dust” will be published July 27th, 2017.