A Haunting Heritage: An African Saga in America: A Novel

by Alasan Mansaray

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0963949756
• ISBN13: 9780963949752
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Sahara Pub.
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Educational, entertaining, and captivating.

Though this book focuses on the story of an African coming to America to abandon his heritage, the lesson learned in this story can have a far reaching effect in many areas of life. The writer is a wonderful storyteller, historian, and truly has a great understanding of African and Western culture. I would truly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a great piece of fiction to curl up on the couch with, but even more, for anyone who is studying African or African American literature or culture.

An Intriguing Novel of Realism and Metaphysics

Alasan Mansaray's debut novel, A Haunting Heritage, indeed leaves one with a delightfully haunting experience. To behold African mysticism at work, witnessing the legendary African rituals of divination, invocation, and mystical powers, with their secrecy and potency. If that doesn't send shivers up your spine, you're yet to see a spooky and mataphysical meeting of the spirits of generations of long-dead ancestors in a court scene deliberating the fate of an errant son who has discarded a scared role for modern life. Many times when reading this exotically laden novel, you wonder where fiction stops and reality starts. The life of African immigrants in America, their cultural clash with African Americans, and their determined bids for success in America, like all immigrants, sound so realistic, but when Mansaray dabbles in the spiritual realm with you as a captive spectator to rituals and ancient African wonders, you wonder is this for real, or some folklore? This is a fascinating book for the keeps, the birth of a promising voice.The author has raw talent,and even with poor editing and a few typos, Mansaray's ability as a gifted storyteller shines. I highly recommend this book, such books don't come everyday.

A Surprising Literary Mine

I have read this book and I enjoyed it very much. The pleasure of reading this novel is that of being transported back and forth between physical and spiritual worlds and between Africa and America. After reading it, it seems like I have been to Africa and back, and now know more about African mysticism and spirituality. If you are an avid reader, this is a book you would enjoy. I bet there is something in it for everybody.