Everfair: A Novel, by Nisi Shawl

Synopsis: Everfair is a wonderful Neo-Victorian alternate history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium’s disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier. Fabian Socialists from Great Britian join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo’s “owner,” King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.

Nisi Shawl’s speculative masterpiece manages to turn one of the worst human rights disasters on record into a marvelous and exciting exploration of the possibilities inherent in a turn of history. Everfair is told from a multiplicity of voices: Africans, Europeans, East Asians, and African Americans in complex relationships with one another, in a compelling range of voices that have historically been silenced. Everfair is not only a beautiful book but an educational and inspiring one that will give the reader new insight into an often ignored period of history.

Published: September 2016 | ISBN: 978-0765338051

Author’s Homepage: http://www.nisishawl.com
Author’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/NisiShawl

NPR Book Review
New York Journal of Books Book Review
Strange Horizons Book Review
Washington Post Book Review

Amazon Associates (SBAD gets a % of sales from books sold via these links, to help us do more work for science books)

Hardcover Edition: Everfair: A Novel
Audio CD Edition: Everfair
Kindle Edition: Everfair: A Novel