WINNER OF THE 2020 CHAUTAUQUA PRIZE ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019Engrossing beautiful and
deeply imaginative Out of Darkness Shining Light is a novel that lends voice to those who
appeared only as footnotes in history yet whose final brave act of loyalty and respect
changed the course of it. An incredible and important book by a masterful writer. -Yaa Gyasi
author of HomegoingThis is how we carried out of Africa the poor broken body of Bwana Daudi
the Doctor David Livingstone so that he could be borne across the sea and buried in his own
land. So begins Petina Gappah's powerful novel of exploration and adventure in
nineteenth-century Africa-the captivating story of the loyal men and women who carried explorer
and missionary Dr. Livingstone's body his papers and maps fifteen hundred miles across the
continent of Africa so his remains could be returned home to England and his work preserved
there. Narrated by Halima the doctor's sharp-tongued cook and Jacob Wainwright a rigidly
pious freed slave this is a story that encompasses all of the hypocrisy of slavery and
colonization-the hypocrisy at the core of the human heart-while celebrating resilience loyalty
and love.
