Bakhita
A Novel of the Saint of Sudan
-
- $21.99
Publisher Description
Inspired by the true story of a former slave who became a saint, this poignant novel explores how a human being can survive the obliteration of her identity, and how kindness and generosity can be born out of profound trauma.
She recalls little of her childhood, not even her own name. She was barely seven years old when she was snatched by slave raiders from her village in the Darfur region of southern Sudan. In a cruel twist, they gave her the name that she will carry for the rest of her life: Bakhita, "the Lucky One" in Arabic. Sold and resold along the slave trade routes, Bakhita endures years of unspeakable abuse and terror. At age thirteen, at last, her life takes a turn when the Italian consul in Khartoum purchases her. A few years later, as chaos engulfs the capital, the consul returns to Italy, taking Bakhita with him. In this new land, another long and arduous journey begins--one that leads her onto a spiritual path for which she is still revered today.
With rich, evocative language, Véronique Olmi immerses the reader in Bakhita's world--her unfathomable resilience, her stubborn desire to live, and her ability to turn toward the pain of others in spite of the terrible sufferings that she too must endure.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Prix Goncourt finalist Olmi's second book to be translated into English (after Beside the Sea) tells the gut-wrenching story of a Sudanese slave who became the Catholic saint Josephine Bakhita. At the end of the 19th century, a seven-year-old girl is abducted from her village in the Darfur region. Named Bakhita, "the lucky one," by her captors, she is forced across the desert alongside a chain gang. Sold and resold, she is terrorized by her owners, beaten and abused, her skin inhumanely tattooed. Still, she cares for any child thrust into her arms. When she is 13, a benevolent Italian in Khartoum buys her, and she begs him to let her go with him to Italy. There, after being given to a woman and serving as a nanny, she is sent to a convent in Venice, where she is baptized, eventually becoming "the nun who wears her story on her skin like stigmata." Olmi's prose soars when recounting Bakhita's suffering and inner life, leveling off some after she is freed and in Italy. More than the sum of its parts, Bakhita's story, and the author's gripping wordplay, convey the unspeakable brutality of slavery and one woman's irrepressible will to live.
