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Augusta Hope has always felt different. While the other children play outside, Augusta reads the dictionary and commits to memorising as many words as she can. At age eight, she pores over the atlas at Hedley Green Library and picks her favourite country, Burundi, based on the way it sounds. Augusta is different from the other kids at school, she’s different from her staid, proper parents, and although she loves her with her whole heart, Augusta is even different from her twin sister, Julia.
Meanwhile, half a world away in Burundi, young Parfait Nduwimana is growing up. Sandwiched between Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi has seen more than its fair share of bloodshed and violence, and Parfait and his siblings are raised knowing the horrors of civil war. When their village is plundered and their father killed, Parfait decides he can no longer live in his country, and sets off across Africa with his younger brother, Zion, determined to start a new life in Spain.
Back in Hedley Green, Augusta grows up feeling more and more different. While Julia marries her high-school sweetheart and seems content to live the rest of her life in Hedley Green, Augusta itches to get out and see the world. But it isn’t until an unspeakable tragedy happens that Augusta is really pushed out of her comfort zone. Stricken with grief, Augusta is propelled headfirst into the unknown, and becomes determined to find where she really belongs. But what if her true home is half a world away?
Lyrical, captivating and deeply moving, The Other Half of Augusta Hope is a standout debut novel from Joanna Glen. Augusta and Parfait are quirky, beautifully rounded characters that pull you in from the start, and it’s impossible not to fall in love with them, not to hope against hope that they both find the happiness they deserve. Glen’s scene setting is brilliant, too, with the story moving effortlessly between the insular, picket-fenced world of Hedley Green, the rugged beauty of Burundi, and bustling, sunny Spain.
This is a gorgeously written novel, too. Glen clearly shares Augusta’s love of words, and her writing is poetic and evocative. Consider this passage, from a scene early on in the story where Parfait introduces us to his motherland: “Burundi carries its poetry in the hummingbirds drinking from the purple throats of flowers, the leaves glistening green after a night of rain; in the cichlid fish which flash like jewels deep beneath the surface of Lake Tanganyika.”
Exploring grief, loss, the trauma of civil war and the refugee experience, The Other Half of Augusta Hope tackles big themes, but this is ultimately a joyful, profoundly hopeful story. It’s a story of second chances and new beginnings, a story about finding light in darkness, and a story that speaks to the life-changing experience of finally finding a place to belong and a person who truly understands you. Fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and The Keeper of Lost Things will devour this book.
About the author:
Joanna Glen read Spanish at the University of London, with a stint at the Faculty of Arts at Cordoba University in the south of Spain. She went on to teach Spanish and English to all ages, and, latterly, was a School Principal in London. She has edited a variety of non-fiction books, is a visiting lecturer, a communications coach and an adviser and trainer for schools. Joanna’s short fiction has appeared in the Bath Flash Fiction Anthology. She lives with her husband and children on the River Thames in Battersea, returning to Andalusia whenever it gets too grey.
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