Q&A
The View from
Elsewhere
A Conversation with
Aminatta Forna
by Keija Parssinen
Happiness, Aminatta Forna’s fourth novel, is
a complex love letter to London that examines
with great delicacy how the city both shelters
and challenges the people—and animals—
who call it home (see WLT, Nov. 2018, 70).
Born in Scotland and raised in Sierra Leone
and the UK, Forna is a cosmopolitan writer
who probingly explores how places shape
their inhabitants, native and nonnative alike.
Starting with her excellent memoir, The
Devil That Danced on the Water, which
documents Sierra Leone’s descent into civil
war through the tribulations of her dissident
father, Mohammed, Forna’s work pays special
attention to how people are changed, for
better or worse, in the crucible of history.
She sat down to speak with Keija Parssinen
about writing, Sierra Leone’s civil war and
its aftermath, and narrative identity. The
following is an excerpt from their exchange.
Keija Parssinen: What drives you to write?
Aminatta Forna: You know, when I get
an idea for something, it’s usually because
something is bothering me. There’s some-
thing I wish to describe or start a conversa-
tion about. I do nurse ideas for novels for a
long time, and I would say that if you look
at the span of my career, it’s been an ongoing
conversation from The Devil That Danced
on Water all the way through to Happiness,
taking place in five different parts, a memoir
and four novels. I think what novelists do
is bring into relief something that’s beenhiding in plain sight. And the particular
position I occupy in the world, which is one
of great privilege because I have an extraor-
dinary range in my vantage point, allows me
to see some things perhaps more sharply
than others might. Therefore, I feel that
something I can do and am interested in24 W LT SUMMER 2019