“The account I read was not the way I had imagined my father's trial at all. I imagined – well, what exactly? That the prosecution's case would have been much more ingenious, more inventive, I suppose. Instead there it was: seven volumes in which the end was written before the start, in which every word demonstrated a contempt for the truth that was brutal, undisguised and arrogant. My father had not been facing one man or even a government, but a system, an entire order, in which everyone from judge to juror knew their role.”

This book is Aminatta Forna’s memoir of her father, Dr. Mohamed Sorie Forna, former minister of finance in Sierra Leone, who was executed on trumped up charges of treason in 1975. Haunted by the past, she decided to reconstruct exactly what happened and why. She engaged relatives and tracked down people involved in order to discover the truth. In the process, she conveys the tortured history of Sierra Leone from the 1960s to 2000s.

The book is part childhood memoir, as the author was a child when her father was killed. I could almost feel her sense of anguish as I read it. She occasionally gets into more detail than perhaps was necessary for the reader, and I probably will not remember many of the names cited, but I am certain it was necessary for the author as she worked through such a personal traumatic experience. I have now read five books by Aminatta Forna, and I always enjoy the author’s elegant writing style.

“There are three words to denote the passing of time: today, tomorrow and yesterday. Everything else is viewed in relation to those three positions and extends only a few days in either direction, perhaps because life in rural Africa is so full of hazards that people prefer to live in the here and now rather than speculate on an uncertain future.”
( )

Aminatta’s Scottish mother met her Sierra Leonean future husband Mohamed Forna while he was a medical student studying in Britain. He’d always planned to return to his native land to help his fellow countrymen.
And with wife and small children in tow, he did exactly that. But he soon found that healing the bodies of his countrymen was not enough. And so, as colonialism was ending in Sierra Leone, he threw his political fortunes in with the All People’s Congress (APC) led by Sjaka Stevens.

Forma served as Minister of Finance in Stevens’s new government. However, the new government was plagued by political coups and dissention, and quickly devolved into corruption and violence. Forma resigned in protest. He soon became an outspoken critic of Stevens’ plan to form an autocratic one party government.
Eventually Forma was arrested on false charges, imprisoned, tortured, and convicted by false testimony of other torture victims. He was tried, condemned and executed.

This is the story that his daughter Aminatta tells of returning to Sierra Leone decades later and trying to put together the pieces of her father’s life. It’s a story of reconciling her childhood memories with a story of corruption and lies during a failed attempt at democracy.

I found this memoir well written and page turning. Besides being an insightful look at a post colonial African nation, it also has lessons for current democracies as they struggle to preserve their freedoms. ( )

One of the most powerful books I've ever read. Carefully journalistically researched, but also personally compelling and powerfully written. I knew almost nothing about the history of Sierra Leone and had never heard of Mohamed Forna, and when I went to look him up after finishing this book, I discovered that he doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. Everyone should read this and be educated by it. ( )

One of the most powerful books I've ever read. Carefully journalistically researched, but also personally compelling and powerfully written. I knew almost nothing about the history of Sierra Leone and had never heard of Mohamed Forna, and when I went to look him up after finishing this book, I discovered that he doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. Everyone should read this and be educated by it. ( )

One of the most powerful books I've ever read. Carefully journalistically researched, but also personally compelling and powerfully written. I knew almost nothing about the history of Sierra Leone and had never heard of Mohamed Forna, and when I went to look him up after finishing this book, I discovered that he doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. Everyone should read this and be educated by it. ( )