Bøger af Sharon Dodua Otoo

A kaleidoscopic novel spanning generations and continents, that reveals the connections between four women in their struggle for survival.A woman in 15th century West Africa named Ada buries her child and confronts a Portuguese enslaver. A woman in Victorian England named Ada Lovelace, a mathematical genius and computer programming pioneer, tries to hide her affair with Charles Dickens from her husband. A woman named Ada, imprisoned in a concentration camp at Mittelbau-Dora in 1945, will survive one more day in enforced prostitution. Connected by an unknown but sentient spirit, and a bracelet of fertility beads that each Ada encounters at a pivotal moment in her life, these women share a name and a purpose.As their interwoven narratives converge on a modern day Ada, a young Ghanaian woman who finds herself pregnant, alone, in Berlin, searching for a home before her baby arrives, their shared spirit will find a way to help her break the vicious cycle of injustice.This novel is a feat of imagination and breaks down simplistic notions of history as a straight line; one woman’s experience matters to another’s 400 years later, on a different continent. In this deeply moving, at times mordantly funny, ultimately hopeful book, there is a connection between all those fighting for love, for family, for justice, for a home.

"the things i am thinking while smiling politely" (Die Dinge, an die ich denke, während ich höflich lächele) ist die Geschichte der langsamen Zersetzung einer Ehe sowie der Konsequenzen für Freunde und Familie. Ama verliert ihre Sista, Kareem lernt einer guten Freundin zu misstrauen, die Geschwister Ash und Beth müssen um die Zuwendung ihrer Mutter ringen, Till und seine Lebensgefährtin entgleiten einander. Feinfühlig, schonungslos, mit subtilem Humor erzählt die Frau mit all ihren Rollen, wie sie sich neu kennenlernt - und nicht nur von der erfreulichen Seite.Nach jahrelanger aktivistischer Tätigkeit in der Schwarzen deutschen Community setzt Sharon Dodua Otoo auch auf dem literarischen Feld weiterhin auf Empowerment. In die Trennungsgeschichte einer in Deutschland lebenden Schwarzen britischen Frau fließen ihre Beobachtungen über Alltagsrassismus und Privilegien mit ein.English:"the things i am thinking while smiling politely" is the story of the decline and break-up of a marriage as well as the consequences for close family and friends. Ama loses her sista, Kareem learns to mistrust a good friend, the siblings Ash and Beth have to fight for their mother's affection, Till and his wife drift away from each other... Sensitively, honestly and with a special sense of humour, the woman with all these roles describes how she rediscovers herself - and not only in the positive sense.Following years of activist work in the Black German community, Sharon Dodua Otoo continues to pursue empowerment as a theme, this time in the field of literature. Sharon weaves her observations on everyday racism and privilege into the story of a Black British woman whose marriage breaks down.