That Hair
Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida
(Author)
Eric M. B. Becker
(Translator)
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Description
"The story of my curly hair," says Mila, the narrator of Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida's autobiographically inspired tragicomedy, "intersects with the story of at least two countries and, by extension, the underlying story of the relations among several continents: a geopolitics." Mila is the Luanda-born daughter of a black Angolan mother and a white Portuguese father. She arrives in Lisbon at the tender age of three, and feels like an outsider from the jump. Through the lens of young Mila's indomitably curly hair, her story interweaves memories of childhood and adolescence, family lore spanning four generations, and present-day reflections on the internal and external tensions of a European and African identity. In layered and luscious prose, That Hair enriches and deepens a global conversation, challenging in necessary ways our understanding of racism, feminism, and the double inheritance of colonialism, not yet fifty years removed from Angola's independence. It's the story of coming of age as a black woman in a nation at the edge of Europe that is also rapidly changing, of being considered an outsider in one's own country, and the impossibility of "returning" to a homeland one doesn't in fact know.
Product Details
Price
$15.95
$14.83
Publisher
Tin House Books
Publish Date
March 17, 2020
Pages
200
Dimensions
5.0 X 7.7 X 0.5 inches | 0.35 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781947793415
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Become an affiliateAbout the Author
Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida was born in Luanda, Angola, and grew up in Lisbon. She has a PhD in literary theory from the University of Lisbon. Her stories and essays have appeared in Granta.com, Words Without Borders, Granta Portugal, Observador, Somos Libros, Ler, serrote, and 451.
Eric M. B. Becker is an award-winning journalist, literary translator, and editor of Words Without Borders. He has received fellowships and residencies from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Commission, PEN America, and the Louis Armstrong House Museum, and has translated books by several Portuguese-language writers, including Mia Couto, Oceanos Prize-winner Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida, and Cannes Best Actress Award-winner Fernanda Torres. His other translations include short work by numerous writers across the Lusophone world; he has also edited anthologies of Brazilian writing and is cofounder of the Pessoa Festival. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Freeman's, and other publications. After a stint in Rio de Janeiro, he now lives in New York.