Reader Score
71%
71% of readers
recommend this book
Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 5 reviews on
The first Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize winner, a story of a girl's fantastical sea voyage to rescue her father
The House of Rust is 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 scholar's 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.
"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 Aisha's epic quest to know her father's 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