The Attic Child
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The Attic Child
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Narrated by:
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Lucian Msamati
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Nneka Okoye
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Written by:
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Lola Jaye
About this listen
Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2023.
Two children trapped in the same attic, almost a century apart, bound by a secret.
1907: Twelve-year-old Celestine spends most of his time locked in an attic room of a large house by the sea. Taken from his homeland and treated as an unpaid servant, he dreams of his family in Africa even if, as the years pass, he struggles to remember his mother’s face, and sometimes his real name....
Decades later, Lowra, a young orphan girl born into wealth and privilege, will find herself banished to the same attic. Lying under the floorboards of the room is an old porcelain doll, an unusual beaded claw necklace and, most curiously, a sentence etched on the wall behind an old cupboard, written in an unidentifiable language. Artefacts that will offer her a strange kind of comfort, and lead her to believe that she was not the first child to be imprisoned there....
Lola Jaye has created a hauntingly powerful, emotionally charged and unique dual-narrative novel about family secrets, love and loss, identity and belonging, seen through the lens of Black British history in The Attic Child.
©2022 Lola Jaye (P)2022 Macmillan Publishers International LimitedCritic Reviews
"This is important storytelling about issues of race and privilege...and a book that will stay with me for a long time." (Tracy Chevalier)
"Just brilliant." (Dorothy Koomson)
"Powerful and emotional." (Lisa Jewell)
What listeners say about The Attic Child
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
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- 17-12-23
Heartbreaking and hopeful
I rate this book 3.75/5 stars. The Attic Child reimagines the history of thousands of children of African descent who were kidnapped or sold into slavery during colonial times. While most narratives in this genre depict African stories with tragic endings, Lola Jaye tries to give a more hopeful end - one of resilience and love.
Listening to Dikembe’s story was exceptionally hard - because it is inspired by the lives and trials of many black children forced into slavery in Britain. But his ending of accomplishment and success and finally, peace, was a refreshing perspective - an ode to those who survived and thrived despite these atrocities against them.
Lowra’s story is what falls short for me. While I did feel sad about her beginnings, her story felt unnecessary to the narrative.
Overall, this is an interesting book, which shows the real history of Britain, which still isn’t acknowledged or taught openly.
The audible narrators have done a very good job and bring this story to life.
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