Out of Darkness, Shining Light

{{Short description|2019 historical novel by Petina Gappah}}

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File:Out of Darkness, Shining Light.jpg

Out of Darkness, Shining Light is a 2019 historical novel by Zimbabwean writer and lawyer Petina Gappah.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/28/out-of-darkness-shining-light-by-pettina-gappah-review|title=Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah review – a journey across colonial Africa|author=Collins, Sara|date=February 28, 2020|website=The Guardian}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/books/review/out-of-darkness-shining-light-petina-gappah.html|title=Dr. Livingstone, We Presume?|date=September 17, 2019|author=Phillips, Caryl|newspaper=The New York Times}}{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/out-of-darkness-shining-light-playing-subtle-games-with-history-1.4173972|title=Book Review: Out of Darkness, Shining Light — Playing subtle games with history|date=March 5, 2020|author=McAloon, Jonathan |newspaper=Irish Times}} Her fourth novel, it was published by Faber & Faber in the UK and by Scribners in the US. The novel was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in 2020 in the category of Outstanding Literary Work{{cite web|author=Obi-Young, Otosirieze|url=https://brittlepaper.com/2020/01/margaret-busbys-new-daughters-of-africa-anthology-petina-gappah-lupita-nyongos-sulwe-nominated-for-51st-naacp-image-awards/|title=Margaret Busby's New Daughters of Africa Anthology, Petina Gappah, Lupita Nyong'o's Sulwe Nominated for 51st NAACP Image Awards|website=Brittle Paper|date=January 10, 2020}}{{Cite web |url=https://variety.com/2020/film/awards/naacp-winners-list-2020-beyonce-rihanna-1203511871/|title=NAACP Winners 2020: The Complete List|author=Variety Staff|date=February 22, 2020 |website=Variety}} and won the 2020 National Arts Merit Awards for Outstanding Fiction Book.{{Cite web |title=NAMA-National Arts Merit Awards – National Arts Council of Zimbabwe |url=http://www.natartszim.org.zw/services/nama/|language=English}}{{cite web|url=https://iharare.com/here-is-the-full-list-of-the-2020-nama-award-winners/|title=Here Is The Full List Of The 2020 NAMA Award Winners|date=March 1, 2020|author=Ndoro, Tim. E.|website=iHarare}}

Colin Grant in The Times Literary Supplement called the book a "powerful and poignant lament to those rendered invisible in the past".{{cite web|url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/out-of-darkness-shining-light-petina-gappah-review-colin-grant/|title=New sources of the Nile|first=Colin|last=Grant|website=The Times Literary Supplement|date=19 June 2020|access-date=28 March 2024}} Reviewing it for World Literature Today, Sean Guynes concluded: "We need novels like Gappah's Out of Darkness, Shining Light, for they remember the stories that have been papered over by history—by whiteness and empire. As Gappah notes in her acknowledgments, these stories may not be real, but we also know that the histories we read are not totally real either, and stories like Halima's and Jacob's, told through Gappah's expert characterization, are not not-real. They are the possibilities always at the edges of the master narratives we learn; they need only to be brought out of the darkness."{{cite web|url= https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2020/winter/out-darkness-shining-light-petina-gappah|first=Sean|last=Guynes|title=Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah|website=World Literature Today|date=Winter 2020|access-date=28 March 2024}}