'Forna's voice is relentlessly compelling her ability to summon atmosphere extraordinary ... A
thing of lasting beauty' OBSERVER SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2019 SHORTLISTED
FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2019 A breathtaking novel from Orange Prize-shortlisted and
Commonwealth Writers' Prize-winning author Aminatta Forna Waterloo Bridge London. Two
strangers collide. Attila a Ghanaian psychiatrist and Jean an American studying the habits
of urban foxes. From this chance encounter in the midst of the rush of a great city numerous
moments of connections span out and interweave bringing disparate lives together. Attila has
arrived in London with two tasks: to deliver a keynote speech on trauma and to check up on the
daughter of friends his 'niece' Ama who hasn't called home in a while. It soon emerges that
she has been swept up in an immigration crackdown - and now her young son Tano is missing.
When by chance Attila bumps into Jean again she joins him in his search for Tano mobilizing
into action the network she has built up mainly from the many West African immigrants working
London's myriad streets of volunteer fox-spotters: security guards hotel doormen traffic
wardens. All unite to help and as the search continues a deepening friendship between Attila
and Jean unfolds. In this delicate yet powerful novel of loves lost and new of past griefs
and of the hidden side of a teeming metropolis Aminatta Forna asks us to consider the values
of the society we live in our co-existence with one another and all living creatures - and the
true nature of happiness. _____________________ 'Entering Forna's sweeping universe
transports you to a place that feels familiar but also totally feral and full of surprises'
FINANCIAL TIMES 'Happiness is a great pleasure to read because of how much life is packed in
by Forna ... [it features] the most appealing protagonist I have encountered in a long while'
THE TIMES 'The best writer of fiction in this field' EVENING STANDARD
