The Colour Line
Igiaba Scego (Translated by John Cullen and Gregory Conti)
Category:
Non-Fiction
|
Social & Cultural History
ABOUT THE BOOK
It was the middle of the nineteenth century when Lafanu Brown audaciously decided to become an artist. In the wake of the American Civil War, life was especially tough for Black women, but she didn’t let that stop her. The daughter of a Native American woman and an African-Haitian man, Lafanu had the rare opportunity to study, travel, and follow her dreams, thanks to her indomitable spirit, but not without facing intolerance and violence. Now, in 1887, living in Rome as one of the city’s most established painters, she is ready to tell her fiancé about her difficult life, which began in a poor family forty years earlier.
In 2019, an Italian art curator of Somali origin is desperately trying to bring to Europe her younger cousin, who is only sixteen and has already tried to reach Italy on a long, treacherous journey. While organizing an art exhibition that will combine the paintings of Lafanu Brown with the artworks of young migrants, the curator becomes more and more obsessed with the life and secrets of the nineteenth-century painter.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
IGIABA SCEGO is a Somali Italian writer, cultural activist and freelance scholar. She was born in Rome to Somali parents who took refuge in Italy following a coup d’état in their native country, where her father served as foreign minister. She holds a PhD in education on postcolonial subjects, has done extensive academic work in Italy and around the world and has a special interest in immigration and mobility. Her memoir won Italy’s prestigious Mondello Prize. The Italian edition of The Colour Line won the Premio Napoli. Scego received the International Award Viareggio-Répaci in 2021. Most recently, she was longlisted for this year’s Premio Strega (2023), Italy’s most prestigious literary award. Her previous novels include Beyond Babylon (2019) and Adua (2017). She also co-edited the anthology series Africana (Feltrinelli), with Chiara Piaggio.
Photo: © Simona Filippini
REVIEWS
‘Exciting to see this ambitious novel by one of Italy’s most important writers come out in English… In its reckoning with racism and colonialism, The Colour Line explores the potential for
artists to reclaim line and colour in the name of justice.’
Selby Wynn Schwartz, author of After Sappho
‘Powerful, provocative, and unflinching, The Colour Line might be Igiaba Scego’s best book yet—and that would be no small feat. In this strikingly lucid and compassionate novel, Igiaba uses her
formidable talents to remind us that the so-called forgotten histories of Black women cannot be silenced forever. The Colour Line is a love story, and it is an ode to sisterhood. It is also a testament to the possibilities of liberation that rest in every act against injustice, and in every moment of
artistic creation.’
Maaza Mengiste, author of
The Shadow King
‘A story of violence and freedom, of racism and political and personal emancipation, through art and love (which is also an art). Igiaba Scego's new novel is a book of denunciation and resurrection, full of clouds and rainbows. The Colour Line makes us travel back and forth in time, in a galaxy of women near and far.’
Sette, weekly magazine of Corriere Della Sera
‘[Scego] gives voice to multiple lives, experiences, and emotions either silenced or ignored by history. Her novel resembles no other Italian novel to have migrated thus far into English.’
‘Beyond Babylon] grows out of novels like Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia, Zadie Smith's White Teeth, Danzy Senna's Caucasia: urban, coming-of-age novels written by young writers
growing up with double perspectives, with the challenge of constructing a hybrid identity.’
Pulitzer Prize-winner Jhumpa Lahiri on
Beyond Babylon
‘The Colour Line is a book on travel. On the desire and the right to move, to change perspectives. First of all a travel back in time, in search of a new historical vision.’ L'Espresso
‘The colour line, which should surely distinguish black from white, also becomes the artistic line of a brush or pen, which knows how to draw from a myriad of colors, which knows how to write about redemption, liberation, creativity, speaking even to those who stubbornly refuse to see.’ Corriere Della Sera
‘Igiaba Scego beautifully addresses topics of exile and the search for one’s roots’ El Mundo
‘Igiaba Scego works to construct a Black European identity’ El País
‘This book is no stranger to us, from whatever story we come from, whatever the color of our skin,whoever we are. This book fights against any compulsion, any prejudice, any denied right. It reminds us that history is not a fact of the past, buried under the years, decades, or centuries, but a living organism, capable of saving or destroying us.’ Tuttolibri, literary magazine of La Stampa
‘This immersive and poignant novel, written by one of Italy's most acclaimed writers, has gone straight to my favourite book of 2023. [...] The characters are vivid, and the writing (and translation) is exquisite - whether Scego is encapsulating Italy or describing a love affair that unfolds over decades. I cannot recommend it highly enough.’
Jess Morency,
Dorset Magazine