The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion

by Aminatta Forna

Aminatta Forna is one of our most important literary voices, and her novels have won the Windham Campbell Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book. In this elegantly rendered and wide-ranging collection of new and previously published essays, Forna writes intimately about displacement, trauma and memory, love, and how we coexist and encroach on the non-human world.

Movement is a constant here. In the title piece, "The Window Seat," she reveals the unexpected enchantments of commercial air travel. In "Obama and the Renaissance Generation," she documents how, despite the narrative of Obama's exceptionalism, his father, like her own, was one of a generation of gifted young Africans who came to the United Kingdom and the United States for education and were expected to build their home countries anew after colonialism. In "The Last Vet," time spent shadowing Dr. Jalloh, the only veterinarian in Sierra Leone, as he works with the street dogs of Freetown, becomes a meditation on what a society's treatment of animals tells us about its principles. In "Crossroads," she examines race in America from an African perspective, and in "Power Walking" she describes what it means to walk in the world in a Black woman's body and in "The Watch" she explores the raptures of sleep and sleeplessness the world over.

Deeply meditative and written with a wry humor, The Window Seat confirms that Forna is a vital voice in international letters.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel, Africa, Biography Memoir, Audiobook

272 pages, Hardcover

First published May 18, 2021

About the author

Aminatta’s books have been translated into eighteen languages. Her essays have appeared in Freeman’s, Granta, The Guardian, LitHub, The Nation, The New York Review of Books, The Observer and Vogue. She has written stories for BBC radio and written and presented television documentaries including “The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu” (BBC Television, 2009) and “Girl Rising” (CNN, 2013).

Aminatta is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of the Folio Academy. She has acted as judge for the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Bailey Prize for Women’s Fiction, the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, the Caine Prize and the International Man Booker Prize.

In 2003 Aminatta established the Rogbonko Project to build a school in a village in Sierra Leone. The charity has also run a number of projects in the spheres of adult education, sanitation and maternal health.

Aminatta is the recipient of a Windham Campbell Award from Yale University, has won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book Award 2011, a Hurston Wright Legacy Award the Liberaturpreis in Germany and the Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize. She has been a finalist for the Neustadt Prize for Literature, the Orange Prize for Fiction, the IMPAC Award and the Warwick Prize. Aminatta Forna was made OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours 2017.

She is currently Lannan Visiting Chair of Poetics at Georgetown University and Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

Reviews

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non-fiction series of essays the author has written for various publications over the years, plus several new pieces, now consolidated into one place. The common theme is travel or migration, either by choice or necessity. Forna has been a world traveler from a young age. She has lived in a number of places around the globe, including Sierra Leone, Iran, Scotland, England, and the US. Her stories take the reader on a virtual trip to these locales, and others she has visited, portraying vignettes of her experiences in each location.

I have read three of Forna’s novels, and very much enjoy her expressive writing style, so I knew I was in for a treat. She switches seamlessly from serious subjects to humorous anecdotes. She conveys insightful comments about our society. There are a number of essays related to animals – dogs and chimpanzees in Sierra Leone, foxes in London, puffins in Scotland, deer and coyotes in the US. These essays encompass topics such as memories, movement, identity, race, gender, and voice. Highly recommended!

I received an advanced reader’s copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This book is due for publication in May, 2021.

[Traci Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forna is a pro. I loved how the essays were personal and also deeply researched. I’m still trying to work out the connection between the essays. I listened on audio and found my mind wandering often. I think this might be better off the page.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of nonfiction essays reflects the author’s experiences living a “wandering” life from childhood to the present and covers episodes in Sierra Leone, England, Scotland, the Middle East, Virginia in the United States, etc, and various times throughout her life. Her observations are sharp and exact, yet also humane. She doesn’t suffer fools but doesn’t bludgeon them either. She presents facts, behaviors and results.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of each essay is the way in which she moves from her opening thought through a central premise and then on to a new, associated idea which actually completes everything in a manner I never anticipated. Her subjects are varied: the “wild” dogs and their vet in Sierra Leone; power walking-and what that means as a woman; insomnia; varieties of wild animals in the modern world, etc. You will learn some history of Sierra Leone; experience what Washington D.C. was like on January 20, 2017 to this biracial writer.

Forna’s voice is accessible, friendly but also educated and open. I will read more of her work and highly recommend this book.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

[Gretchen Rubin]

A thought-provoking collection of essays about relationships with the world, family, home, and more.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘To fly alone as a child was my first taste of what it might feel like to be on my own in the world.’

What can I tell you about this beautiful collection of non-fiction essays? Ms Forna writes about the past, of significant events, of her own experiences. She invites you to think about colonialism, to revisit your own childhood experiences while reading hers. I see Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979 through different eyes, I think about the importance of sleep while reading of Ms Forna’s experiences of insomnia.

‘Sleep left me in the year 2001. I realise now that my sleeplessness coincided with my decision to become a writer.’

I am taken on journeys around the world (in the window seat, of course) and am reminded of the importance of ancestry and the pain of displacement. I see a different view of the Trump inauguration and read about the only qualified vet in private practice in Freetown. Diverse topics indeed.

I finished this compilation of beautifully written reflective pieces, take a deep breath, and return to my own world.

So far, the only other work of Ms Forna’s I have read is ‘Happiness’. I have added Ms Forna’s other books to my reading list.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Grove Press for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

17 essays written between 2010 and 2020 from the brilliant novelist, Aminatta Forna, one of my absolute faves. The Scottish and Sierra Leonean writer has lived and travelled all over the world. She is a human repository of an exceptionally rich blend of experiential, journalistic, and academic knowledge; and her wordsmith game is superb. I rate this 3.5⭐️s for the content, 5⭐️s for the writing, only because some of the essays were a bit too erudite for me, or were heavy on encyclopedic detail and stats.

[Pascale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received an Advance Reader's Copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I am so glad that I request a copy of this! I have a few titles by Forna on my TBR list, but had never read her work and this was a great introduction. I want to read everything she has written.

Forna is a bit of a globe trotter but she never comes across as boastful of her travels, and years working in various countries. I've been resentful while reading narratives by others who haven't been so fortunate to strike a nice balance in this sense.

Sexism, racism, environmentalism are all topics that are broached, and their relatedness is especially made clear in the later half when discussing 'Bruno' and the Coyote. As someone who considers herself a feminist, I particularly appreciated how Forna seems to live the ideals of feminism (though she doesn't name it as such) in her every day life as well as in her career.

Though I'm told that this constitutes a book of essays, I would classify it more as a memoir, not linear by any means, but definitely autobiographical in nature. Forna's life, and the life of all her ancestors is fascinating and I would love to just read massive volumes of their stories if it were in Forna's descriptive but not too purple prose.

I suppose you could dip and and out of the volume and it may read more as essays, but I dare you t pick this up and not want to consume it in great big hunks like the lovely Victoria Sponge mentioned by the author early on.

[Vansa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of essays, that captures Aminatta Forna's peripatetic life, and her wonderful insights on the human ( and sometimes animal) condition. I loved her memoir about her Childhood and search for her father. This book is as moving and as well written. The essays cover a wide range of topics, from aviation, to SUVs and the violent ways they can be put to use, family, the interactions of humans and animals, and her famous NYRB essay on Obama and the Renaissance Generation. My favourite essay is her account of her adolescence in Iran on the cusp of revolution, and her reckoning of it as an adult with a more informed perspective. Each essay is beautiful and rewarding, unlike a lot of collections that tend to be uneven. I'm very grateful I was given this ARC by Netgalley to review!

[Anaïs Juillet · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is something for everyone in this book. Aminatta has this wild way of getting to her point that at first threw me for a loop... you think she's going off on a tangent and then when she reaches her point, which is often the last sentence, it all makes sense every single time. She does this while answering questions too, and I'm completely in awe of it. How she can say so much and it's all relevant- like throwing a boomerang and no matter how far it goes, it's in your hand at the end.

I wonder if Aminatta Forna is the most knowledgeable author I have ever met.

My favorite essays were Santigi, The Last Vet, Power Walking, Bruno, and In Timbuktu.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this so much! More coherent review tomorrow

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t finish this book of essays before I had to return it to the library, but I loved the title story. It transported (ha) me back to air travel as a child, particularly an unforgettable flight across the Sahara in a propeller plane. Hours of flying low and slow (because: propeller plane) above an unearthly landscape.

[Bookreporter.com Biography & Memoir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aminatta Forna is one of those writers who I wish was more well known in the United States. She is the author of numerous well-regarded and award-winning memoirs and novels, but she’s far from a household name. I’m not sure a collection of her essays will be the thing that rockets her onto the bestseller list, but one can hope that readers will come away from these rich and rewarding pieces with a new understanding of an important literary voice --- and a greater appreciation of the complexities of the world in which we live.

Many of the essays collected here have been previously published in the journals Granta and Freeman’s. As befitting the international focus of those publications --- not to mention the title of the collection --- many of the essays center on Forna’s experiences visiting or living in countries around the world, from her native Sierra Leone to her adopted homeland of London to her temporary homes in Arlington, Virginia, and Williamstown, Massachusetts, for visiting teaching positions. Forna opens her collection with the title essay, “The Window Seat,” in which she praises the pleasures of air travel (which many of her readers may barely remember): “I love the drama of the take off. The improbability of the whole endeavour.”

This joy in motion, in discovering new places, suffuses much of Forna’s writing here, such as in “Hame,” in which she and her brother accompany their mother to the Shetland Islands, where her family came from. Sometimes that sense of discovery is tinged with sadness; this is especially true in essays like “Santigi,” “The Last Vet” and “Bruno,” all of which touch on the changes she sees in Sierra Leone and its people since the devastating civil war there in the 1990s.

Race and identity are also common themes that tie these essays together --- not only Forna’s multiracial, multinational identity but also those of people like Barack Obama, whose origins she traces to a larger pattern of migration by young Africans (like Obama’s father) in search of an education in the US and the UK, known as the “Renaissance Generation.” Forna remarks on the differences in racial attitudes between the US and the UK. In a particularly resonant essay called “Power Walking,” she touches on the ways in which she, as a Black woman, navigates the sidewalks and their accompanying (white, male) gaze she encounters there.

Perhaps those who already are familiar with Forna's longer work will enjoy this book most and will see in it evidence of research and family history that underpin her memoir and fiction efforts. But for many other readers, THE WINDOW SEAT, with its promise of a glimpse into many different places and ways of life, will give them their first taste of this thoughtful, insightful author and will want to seek out more of her work.

Reviewed by Norah Piehl

[Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like all of Aminatta Forna's book, this was a delight to read. She's one of the best writers we have, and this was especially rewarding because it's a collection of essays offering insight into her rich history and what she's seen -- first hand -- of global politics.

These are deeply personal reflections on the odd, joyous, and terrifying experiences Forna has survived in Africa, Europe and the United States. I will never forget the veterinarian in Sierra Leone who tries to save all the dogs who cross his path, since there is no one else in his country to do it. The story was made richer by Forna's comparisons of treatment of animals in Africa and the United States (and no, we Americans do not fare well.)

Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for an advance readers copy.

[Austen to Zafón · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was immediately sucked in by the first line: "Here are four words you rarely hear today: I love to fly." Yes! I do too! Here was someone who, like me, still loves the excitement and adventure of travel, even with all its trials and inconveniences. This first piece had me nodding along and laughing at her stories of flying as an unaccompanied minor in the days when flying was still pretty glamorous and there were only "stewardesses." I'd never read anything by her before and this gave me a taste of how open, observant, and funny she is. Here is an excerpt:

To fly as an unaccompanied minor was to enter a topsy-turvy world where children were, for once, the most important people. We boarded first and had our own reserved rows, always aft, close to the galleys and the staff. We were served our meals ahead of all the other passengers, and we were given tuck boxes of games, colouring books, comics, pencils, and, inevitably, a die-cast model Boeing 747 or DC-10. The flight crew became our surrogate parents. The stewardesses were our mothers, only more patient and more elegant than our real mothers. These Stepford mothers possessed bright smiles, soothing voices and limitless supply of snacks. The never ignored us, rather came whenever we called. The uniformed captain already looked like a hero, he commanded three hundred tons of aircraft and two hundred passengers. He did not bother much with us until after take off, when his smooth voice sounded over the tannoy: 'This is your captain speaking.' And we raised our heads to listen. For six hours, we lived inside the perfect patriarchy.

The rest of the essays are astonishing in their breadth, tone, and length. She goes from wry commentary on human nature to clear-eyed takes on racism, war, and the stark differences and interesting similarities between her life in London and Scotland and that with her father's family in Sierra Leone. She's travelled widely and not just as a tourist. She often recalls childhood experiences. One short piece deftly encapsulates the experience of being scared by things that adults assume will be "fun" for kids. At a Disney on Ice performance at the age of six, she is snatched from her seat by a skater costumed as a character she loved, the gentle bear Baloo from The Jungle Book, and taken out on the ice. It reminded me of the scene with the scary Santa and elves from A Christmas Story.

Baloo up close was not the Baloo of the Jungle Book film or even Baloo of the ice. This Baloo had a face made of plastic, and hard plastic paws. And his eyes were not soft, brown, bear eyes. Through the cut-out holes of the mask, I could see the small, blue eyes of a man. I cried out. I wriggled. And I fought. But Baloo was strong. Baloo held on tight. And then we were on the ice, speeding away from everything I knew. The audience clapped and cheered. 'Take me back,' I cried. And Baloo, my once beautiful Baloo, dug his fingers and thumbs hard into my body, leaned forward and hissed with hot breath into my hear: 'Shut up, you little shit!'

One of my favorite pieces is about a veterinarian in Sierra Leone who is a friend of hers; the only pet vet in the country. It highlights the difference between how people in Sierra Leone treat animals and how we do in the UK and the US, and how white people sweep in and judge and want to "save the animals," but then disappear, having made little to no difference except for swelling their own sense of superiority and importance. This is similar to how white people handle human issues in other countries. Instead of taking the time to understand or value an unfamiliar culture, or to see how our own culture also has issues we should be addressing, we want to be "saviors" who have it all figured out.

Forna covers so much ground in this book that, it's hard to encapsulate it in a short review, but I enjoyed every piece, learned a lot about places and people I've never visited, and came away with a new perspective on several issues. Well worth a read. I will be reading some of her other work.

Thanks to NetGalley, who gave me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few years ago I read Aminatta Forna’s exceptionally beautiful novel The Memory of Love and was really excited to read some of her non-fiction work. The Window Seat definitely did not disappoint! It is a collection of previously published, and a few new, essays that the author has penned over the years, threaded together by the themes of travel and migration. If you know me they are also themes that tie my own life together, so there were many areas in this collection where I found myself nodding my head, and moments that I related to in ways that sometimes brought me to tears.

Aminatta Forna’s beautiful prose translates well into non-fiction, and her essays teach us and take us places, all the while remaining very personal and close to the heart. I love how she uses animals metaphorically ( I like to think that I am a puffin, but maybe I have become a robin, I’m not sure anymore), and how she turns a simple trip into a story in which the reader feels they are intimately involved. I also really love how she manages to take a story and her own observations and weave them together to provide acute and important overviews on tough topics like institutionalized racism, civil war, and slavery.

I personally loved the essay describing her trip to the Shetland Islands with her mother and brother, discovering her ancestral grounds), and it made me think about how I yearn to visit the Hebrides to find mine. And of course, all of the references to “home” and how that does not mean the same thing to people like her (or me) that it does to others. “Where is home?” is such a loaded question to me, and I love reading works by other people who have traveled so much and lived in so many different places from such an early age.

All in all this is just a beautiful collection of essays, and I would highly recommend it!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Sandie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a collection of autobiographical essays by Aminatta Forna. She is not only an author with books such as The Hired Man and Memory Of Love but a professor of writing in various universities throughout the world. Forna has led a fascinating life. Her childhood was spent in various countries. Her father was executed as a revolutionary in Sierra Leon during the period when various African countries were establishing their independence from colonial rule. Her stepfather was a diplomat so she and her brother grew up in various embassies in such locations as Iran, Zambia and Thailand. Her mother was Scottish and she also spent time as a child in Scotland. The first part of this collection are stories from her childhood and these events.
The latter part of the collection are more reaction pieces to various topics that she has an interest in. She has a real love for animals that comes through in these pieces. Topics she covers include the inauguration of Donald Trump, various dogs she has owned and the street dogs in Africa, suffering from insomnia, the experience of being a woman and dealing with men's catcalls and attempts to belittle based on gender, chimpanzees kept as pets or used in testing, peanut butter and wildlife she has encountered, especially foxes and coyotes; the foxes in England and the coyotes in various locations in the United States. I listened to this book and Forna was the narrator. Often having the author as the narrator is not a good choice but Forna was an excellent narrator and having her own voice narrating her life experiences was a fabulous choice.

I can highly recommend this book. Forna is an amazing author and I can't imagine anything she would write that I wouldn't find fascinating. She is determined to live life on her terms and to live a full life and the reader is blessed to be able to share this part of her life with her. This book is recommended for readers of memoirs and essays.

[Cflack · Rating 4 out of 5]

"People talk about roots but plants have roots not human beings. Humans have feet and feet are meant for walking. When the Vikings learned to build boats they climbed into those and sailed the seas. Now that we can fly we have become birds."

I have read 2 of Aminatta Forna's novels (Happiness and The Hired Man) and loved them both. I saw her speak with Sacha Hemon and John Freeman about an issue of Freeman. Her writing is wonderful and this collection of essays falls in line with the best of her writing. There are some short essays that are to the point and interesting but the best essays in the collection are the long and winding ones - how her trip with her Mother and brother to the Shetland Islands, Crossroads about her life living in multiple countries and how history and race impact her perspective of where and how she lives, and for me the most power essay Power Walking - what it means to be a woman walking out in the world when the male gaze holds all of the power and the racial implications which complicate this gaze even more.

Intelligent, thoughtful, poignant.

[Mbogo J · Rating 4 out of 5]

The name Aminatta Forna sounded so familiar to me that it was a surprise when doing background research on this book it occurred to me that I actually have not read any of her books and this will be the first. I cannot explain on why this was the case but this book was a good starter for Aminatta's books.

Aminatta has lived an intrepid life and that will be self evident from the stories you'll read here. There were serious stories on feminism, politics and many other things but my favorites were stories on mundane things. There was one entry where Aminatta and her mum went for a christmas play when she was little... I loved the story a lot. Some other stories somehow intertwined with current events, I read her entry on the Iranian Cultural revolution the same time as there were on going protests in Iran which felt very poetic of how history hums a familiar tune. Bottom line is I enjoyed this collection a lot, it stands highly recommended to everyone.

[Gia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before picking up this book I was not familiar with Aminatta Forna or her work. The Window Seat covers quite a bit about her childhood and life leading up to present day. Being forced to leave her home country as a child during the war was startling to hear. And the lasting affects that had on her and her family made me sad. This audiobook is read by the author and when ever a memoir is narrated by the author themselves is has a bigger impact on with the book. I was intrigued and invested in her observations, personal stories and analysis in family, history and even politics.

I felt that things began to be less interesting at the 75% mark. The chapters/essays were not as connection to the pace and flow of the rest of the book at that point, in my opinion. It felt like small observations that were included just because. Regardless, I would like to read more by this author in the future.

[Phoebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a little book that one might pick up out of curiosity (Forna being more well-known outside of the US) and then cannot put down and ends up reading in one sitting. It is quickly evident that Forna has a voice and an opinion and a firm world view and she isn't ashamed to express herself. In one essay she shares her experiences walking around cities, as a woman, encountering men, who objectify her--she doesn't put up with it. She doesn't let it go as many of us would--so ingrained in women is it to "not rock the boat." She is a boat-rocker. Two essays are particularly good, one in which she visits the Shetland Islands in search of ancestry, and the other in which she meets the vet whose commitment to helping the street dogs in Sierra Leone is both heartwrenching and futile. What an interesting, worldly, smart read from a person who fully inhabits herself. Adult.

[Richard L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Reading this book was a journey to hidden, ignored and overlooked places in the world, sometimes right in our own neighbourhoods.

In this age of unconscious "world travelers" padding their passports (Iceland! The Galapagos! Some place ending with "-stan"! Another all-inclusive!) whilst treating other countries as one big vending machine in the service of their (largely unearned) wealth, we need more people who don't just go places, but actually see them and their people, delve into their stories, and strive to understand them.

Not to say this book is even about travel. It's about the places that we happen to find ourselves, even shopping at a Whole Foods or simply walking on a street, and the unseen histories and larger contexts behind these places.

Thank you to the author for being a unique voice and perspective to a world of louder and far less reflective voices.

[John Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read two of Aminatta Forna's book previously, one about the life and death of her Sierra Leonean father and another novel about Africa. I enjoyed both of them. In this book of essays, she explores many themes of her global life having been raised in both Sierra Leone and Scotland, with her Scottish mother. One of the essays explores people like her parents, and President Obama's parents, who met when the man was in the UK or the US on scholarship. Others explore many different themes in Africa, Europe and the United States. The shortest essay is only half a page long. Usually, a longer 20-30 page essay is next to 1-3 page essay. All force you to think but most gave me a sense of her bright, funny and thoughtful personality, something I was not able to capture from her previous two books.

[Chantal Lyons · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great audiobook for listening to while walking = being on the move lends itself to the atmosphere of travel in many of Forna's essays, and her voice is precise and pleasing to listen to.

There's a huge range of topics in 'The Window Seat', from the slave trade to Forna's time as a teenager in Iran to engaging with coyotes in the USA. Her essays about canids (dogs, foxes, and coyotes) were particularly memorable, although the one I found most powerful was on walking as a woman alone (sadly, very timely so soon after the Sarah Everard case).

I haven't come across Forna's writing before, though I had heard of her, and her perception and wit held my attention throughout this collection of essays.

[Maureen Ellsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahhh.... Sierra Leone. It's been nearly 40 years since 14 educators spent a Fulbright/Hays grant summer in this beautiful country. But, such a life-changing experience will always be with me--mind, body, and spirit. Everything came back to me while reading these brilliant essays-- from arriving at airport & on to ferry ride to oil lamps & smells to dogs and beaches-- but most lovely and enjoyable to re-visit were all the people. Made me appreciate and ponder all those I met and what they may have suffered these past decades. Of course, I was particularly drawn to the essays featuring Sierra Leone, but ALL the essays are brilliant in this must read book.

[Penny Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Window Seat is engaging without being unsubtle and politically insightful without sacrificing its nuance. It's one of those books that makes you realize just how much we accept as a default without really questioning it or wondering why, and how such defaults differ from place to place, from person to person. Some of the essays feel a bit out of place and, at least to me, seem to dilute the overall themes of the work, but even so, each piece is individually worthwhile, and many build on each other in fascinating ways.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. I so appreciate Forna's intelligence and sensitivity, her wide range of interests, and she takes us to such interesting places, including Sierra Leone, the Shetland Islands, and revolutionary Iran, all of which she knows firsthand and through family. Her writing is beautiful; she is wise and compassionate. I had not heard of her before I stumbled on this book, but I will certainly be seeking her out again.

[Libriar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know how this book came on my radar because I didn't know who Forna was but I'm glad I listened to it. This series of essays form a memoir of sorts about her growing up and living around the world. Her memories of traveling solo as a child were fascinating. She also tackles topics such as how race is approached in various countries. She narrates the book and sounds extremely similar to Christiane Amanpour, making it pure joy to listen to.

[Peter Holz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a series of vignettes that capture significant moments from the author's life, mostly related to the places she has lived over her journey. Patchy, as these often are, but enjoyable. The most memorable stories relate to her experiences in Sierra Leone and Iran, while the ones set in the US and the UK are a bit more mundane and rambling. Her essay on sexism and harassment was particularly thought provoking.

[Jen Perena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aminatta Forna is currently my favorite writer. Her years spent as a journalists inform her documentary-writing style, and when coupled with her gifts for describing a scene or experience, make for beautiful writing. This book is a series of shorter essays, some only a page or two, some several pages. Each is interesting and amusing. I really enjoyed the book and found myself re-reading chapters just to stretch out the time spent with her stories.

[Anjie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book of essays! Beautiful writing, insightful, wide-ranging, personal, worldly, memorable, enjoyable. The first essay, called “the Window Seat,” captured every ounce of anticipation, joy and wonder I feel whenever I fly. The author’s other essays (partly a memoir) take readers to London, Scotland’s northernmost islands, Sierra Leone, Tehran in the Ayatollah’s first days, Trump’s disappointing inauguration, and New England. A life in motion, indeed. Her observations along the way held my interest page after page, especially her accounts of how Africans view America’s racial dynamics, and how humans are taking a toll on animal habitats on three continents. By the time I had finished I felt like my mental and emotional passports had been stamped many times over. And now I am even more excited to do the same with my real passport.