The House of Rust: A Novel [Paperback]

The first Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize winner, a story of a girls fantastical sea voyage to rescue her father

The House of Rustis an enchanting novel about a Hadhrami girl in Mombasa. When her fisherman father goes missing, Aisha takes to the sea on a magical boat made of a skeleton to rescue him. She is guided by a talking scholars cat (and soon crows, goats, and other animals all have their say, too). On this journey Aisha meets three terrifying sea monsters. After she survives a final confrontation with Baba wa Papa, the father of all sharks, she rescues her own father, and hopes that life will return to normal. But at home, things only grow stranger.

Khadija Abdalla Bajabers debut is a magical realist coming-of-age tale told through the lens of the Swahili and diasporic Hadhrami culture in Mombasa, Kenya. Richly descriptive and written with an imaginative hand and sharp eye for unusual detail,The House of Rustis a memorable novel by a thrilling new voice.

Astonishing. . . . Aisha is everything you want in a heroine: cunning and headstrong, but also fallible. . . . There are stories within stories here, bursting with truth and wisdom, honoring the rich oral traditions of the Hadrami. . . . Bajaber is a born storyteller, pulling you along Aishas epic quest to know her fathers fate. . . . This book deserves to be huge.The New York Times Book Review

With sparse, sharply written prose and surreal imaginings, this vivid coming-of-age novel depicts the complexity of childhood, the importance of family, and the thirst for adventure.BuzzFeed

[A] glorious sea-infused debut. . . . This is a novel as much about alÃN