HOUSE OF ASHES BY MONIQUE ROFFEY
SIMON & SCHUSTER (HARDBACK), 2014
368 PAGES
This book is part of my Popsugar Reading Challenge 2015 (http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-Challenge-2015-36071458). The category for this book is ‘a book from an author you love but haven’t read yet’. I changed my choice for this category.
I chose this book because Roffey is one of my favorite writers. I’ve read and loved all of her previous novels. This is her latest and I haven’t read it. I plan to read her memoir as well so she’ll be the only author I’m reading twice for the challenge.
BLURB FROM THE COVER
The City of Silk is restless. During the post-independence era, a new beginning was denied to the people of the small island of Sans Amen. Corruption set in and has been endemic for too long.
Then one hot July evening the Leader, the self-appointed head of a fringe spiritual group, gathers his followers and tells them: ‘Today, we will be making history. For ourselves, and our fellow countrymen of Sans Amen.’
And so a brotherhood of half-trained men and boys take up arms and storm two of the most important buildings in the city: the house of power and the television studios. Together they will take back what is rightfully theirs.
Caught up in the madness is Ashes. A bookish, learned man, he has been swept up by The Leader’s powerful rhetoric. But now that words have turned to action he is not so sure anymore. And trapped inside the government building with the rebels is Aspasia. A proud woman, a mother of boys, she sees much of her sons in these boys with guns in their hands and power in their eyes.
A powerful, evocative and important novel from the author of The White Woman on the Green Bicycle.
EXTRACT
It was hot in the prayer room. Late July, and the air is so thick with moisture every brother and sister gathered there glowed inside a halo of light. Some of the young boys occupied the front rows and Ashes was pleased to see most of them appeared clean. They looked reverent and alert, though he knew the truth was that most of them attended not just for prayers, but also for the football match afterwards. Ashes looked further forward and his gaze rested on the Leader’s shoulders; as usual, he was dressed in robes of gray. The Leader was a huge man, six foot eight, with a broad and powerful back and muscular neck. His skin was smooth, like a child’s, the color of caramel. His head was bent forward and he appeared to be fully absorbed, already prayerful. Ashes knew the Leader was asking for guidance for what was to come that afternoon, a plan which held elements of divine will and earthly chaos. His stomach constricted just at the thought of what lay ahead, and the lower parts of him, his loins, his thighs, felt weakened when he remembered what the Leader had said only weeks before.
REVIEW
This was my first time reading House of Ashes. Roffey is one of my favorite authors. I’ve read and loved all her other novels especially Sun Dog.
I really enjoyed House of Ashes. It’s was different than most of the stuff I usually read. House of Ashes was very different than Roffey’s other novels. This can be a good thing. I like it when a writer doesn’t write the same thing over and over and branches out. I don’t think House of Ashes is as good as Roffey’s other novels but I liked it. House of Ashes deals with some serious and intense issues but writes about this in a simple way. The novel had some very intense and chilling moments. I liked the blend of light and dark. I also really liked the sort of epilogue at the end which takes place 23 years after the main events. Talk about heart wrenching. House of Ashes is great.
RATING
