A STORY ABOUT IDENTITIES, CHANGE, AND FROCKS, LOTS OF THEM.
" Hausa Blue”
- A New Story Told in the Old Fashioned Way -
From the contaminated capital to moth-eaten Bengal, a multi-racial British Empire is getting round to revolution. Dipa, the Queen’s imposter, has been locked in the Tower of London and is beginning to see that ‘It’s chaos out there.’
The second novel by Kate Abley, "Hausa Blue" is a page-turning tale of personal revolutions at a time of social change. Firmly grounded in traditional storytelling Abley plays with some familiar genres to create a vivid and sometimes luxuriant world.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
The characters and their actions lead the drama in a slightly different but eminently
recognisable London and Bengal. Dipa, the young dress-makers daughter, paces up and down her cell in the Tower of London as former queens are wont to do. She doesn’t know why the charge of treason has been dropped, why the guards are not beating her anymore, or why they have changed their uniforms. All she knows is that there is a New Management in the British Empire that she ruled over before she was found out. If she is going to be released, she must reveal how a good girl like her washed her face and hands before she went to meet the woman who would embroil her in a life of lies and very well-dressed debauchery. As Dipa confesses of the extravagance and decadence of the Aristoi class she was so willing to join, we learn about the Lady Aditi Egremont-Cooch-Bahar, rich, beautiful and from one of the most influential families in the Empire, who is the undisputed queen of the Yangans, the ‘it-girls’ of this world. Aditi is clever too but has played one too many japes She has escaped to the other side of the world and the land of some of her forefathers. Brewing in her mind is a sort of plan to turn the tide back in her favour, all she needs is the right equipment.
"Hausa Blue" is an evocative and entrancing expedition into a strange but familiar world through the eyes of original and engaging characters.”
You can read a few pages of, Hausa Blue, here
-Release Date: May 7th, 2021
-Publisher: Nielson
- ISBN-10: 1527288315
- ISBN-13 : 978-1527288317
WHY YOU NEED THIS BOOK:
"Hausa Blue" is an easy-to-read novel written for someone who wants to break out of the confines of ‘genre’ and get into a great story. It may look a little strange at first, with quite a few unfamiliar landmarks and words, but the depth and relatability of the, sometimes all too recognisable, characters carry the reader on an exciting journey.
Kate Abley does not shy away from some of the difficult issues we face today; identity, power, and social change. However, her touch is light, loving, and sometimes very funny indeed.
This book is intriguing and fun and perfect for a dip into other ways of looking at our own worlds. "Hausa Blue" is an absolute must-read and an ideal book for ‘the new normal’.
“Kate Abley’s second novel is a great adventure that takes us around a world and into the hearts of some fascinating, lovable, and not so lovable, people. Hausa Blue left me asking when I can read more from Kate Abley’s wonderful imagination.”
- Sandra Pepper
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kate Abley was accidentally born and now intentionally lives in London, England, where, amongst other things she has been an awful frontwoman in a psychobilly band, good
dish-washer, bad shop assistant, officially outstanding Early Years teacher, nice charitable fund-giver and failed political activist. Last century, she wrote the non-fiction book, ‘Swings and Roundabouts: The Dangers of Outdoor Play Safety’ (1999). Nowadays, she is a respectable and happily married woman with two children who have grown up pretty well and she has turned her hand to killing plants and writing stories. She published her first novel, Changing the Subject, in 2019.
ALSO BY KATE ABLEY
“Changing the Subject”
Thank you Kate Abley for stopping by KayBee's Bookshelf!
Happy reading!
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