From acclaimed short fiction writer Nisi Shawl comes a brilliant
alternate history set in the Congo, where heroes strive for a Utopia and
endeavor to live together despite their differences.
Now with a beautiful new cover and a foreward from award-winning
author Cadwell Turnbull.
In this re-imagining of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo,
African American missionaries join forces with British socialists to
purchase land from the Congo Free State's "owner," King Leopold II. This
land, which they name Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven for native
populations of the Congo as well as settlers from around the world,
including dream-eyed Europeans attempting to create a better society,
formerly enslaved people returning from America, and Chinese railroad
builders escaping hard labor. Using the combined knowledge of four
continents, Everfair becomes a land of spying cats and gulls, nuclear
dirigibles buoyed by barkcloth balloons, and silent pistols that shoot
poison knives.
With this technology, Everfair will attempt to defeat the Belgian tyrant
Leopold II. But even if they can defeat their great enemy, a looming
world war and political infighting may threaten to destroy everything
they have built.
"A book with gorgeous sweep, spanning years and continents, loves and
hates, histories and fantasies... Everfair is sometimes sad, often
luminous, and always original. A wonderful achievement." -- Karen Joy
Fowler
