Confronting History
with Francesca Ekwuyasi and Shaena Lambert
Hosts: Catherine Hernandez and Peter Schneider
Petra by Shaena Lambert is a miracle of a novel, fully imagined and exquisitely written. Petra Kelly herself is incandescent on its pages, as she was in the world. I read her story with deep appreciation for the light it casts on the global fix we’re in.
Some think of history as something distinct from the here and now, but for bettor or worse, history is always with us. Clearly, some history needs to be confronted if we are ever going to learn from it.
This episode features Francesca Ekwuyasi in conversation with Catherine Hernandez and Shaena Lambert in conversation with Peter Schneider.
Francesca Ekwuyasi's debut novel, Butter Honey Pig Bread, is an intergenerational saga about three Nigerian women, a story of choices and their consequences, of motherhood, of the malleable line between the spirit and the mind, of finding new homes and mending old ones, of voracious appetites, of queer love, of friendship, faith, and above all, family.
Inspired by Petra Kelly, the original Green Party leader and political activist who fought for the planet in 1980s Germany, Shaena Lambert brings us a captivating new novel about a woman who changed history and transformed environmental politics--and who, like many history-changing women, has been largely erased. Petra is an exploration of love, jealousy, and the power of social change.
A limited number of signed books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.
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