Greenland: A Novel, David Santos Donaldson

Description

Greenland by David Santos Donaldson is a breathtaking debut that blurs the boundaries between history and imagination, love and identity, fiction and truth. Shortlisted for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, this novel-within-a-novel explores the haunting intersections between the life of E. M. Forster’s Egyptian lover, Mohammed el Adl, and that of Kip Starling, a modern-day Black queer writer racing against a deadline—and his own unraveling mind.

In 1919, Mohammed el Adl is imprisoned for six months, caught in the crosscurrents of colonialism, desire, and repression. Over a century later, Kip sequesters himself in a Brooklyn basement with only a pistol, a stack of water bottles, and a manuscript to finish. As Kip writes, the lines between author and subject begin to dissolve. Mohammed’s voice—and his pain—start to invade Kip’s psyche, forcing him to confront buried memories of race, love, and alienation in his own life.

Lyrical, hallucinatory, and fiercely intelligent, Greenland examines the impossible dream of assimilation, the echoes of empire in queer love, and the transformative power of storytelling itself. Donaldson’s prose glows with urgency and introspection, charting a journey through time, desire, and self-invention that is as intimate as it is epic.

Hardcover