{"product_id":"how-to-say-babylon-a-memoir-9781982132347","title":"How to Say Babylon: A Memoir","description":"National Book Critics Circle Award Winner A New York Times Notable Book Best Book of the Year for The Washington Post* The New Yorker * Time * The Atlantic * Los Angeles Times * NPR * Harper's Bazaar * Vulture * Town \u0026amp; Country * San Francisco Chronicle * Christian Science Monitor * Mother Jones * Barack Obama A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick \"Impossible to put down...Each lyrical line sings and soars, freeing the reader as it did the writer.\" --People With echoes of Educated and The Glass Castle, How to Say Babylon is a \"lushly observed and keenly reflective chronicle\" (The Washington Post), brilliantly recounting the author's struggle to break free of her rigid religious upbringing and navigate the world on her own terms. Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair's father, a volatile reggae musician and a militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, was obsessed with the ever-present threat of the corrupting evils of the Western world outside their home, and worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure. For him, a woman's highest virtue was her obedience. Safiya's extraordinary mother, though loyal to her father, gave her the one gift she knew would take Safiya beyond the stretch of beach and mountains in Jamaica their family called home: a world of books, knowledge, and education she conjured almost out of thin air. When she introduced Safiya to poetry, Safiya's voice awakened. As she watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under relentless domesticity, Safiya's rebellion against her father's rules set her on an inevitable collision course with him. Her education became the sharp tool to hone her own poetic voice and carve her path to liberation. Rich in emotion and page-turning drama, How to Say Babylon is \"a melodious wave of memories\" of a woman finding her own power (NPR).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSafiya Sinclair was born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She is the author of the memoir \u003ci\u003eHow to Say Babylon\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, a finalist for the Women's Prize in Nonfiction, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, and the Kirkus Prize. \u003ci\u003eHow to Say Babylon \u003c\/i\u003ewas one of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e's 100 Notable Books of the year, a \u003ci\u003eWashington Post \u003c\/i\u003eTop 10 Book of 2023, a \u003ci\u003eTIME \u003c\/i\u003emagazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book of 2023, one of \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e's 10 Best Books of 2023, a Read with Jenna\/\u003ci\u003eTODAY\u003c\/i\u003e show book club pick, and one of President Barack Obama's favorite books of 2023. \u003ci\u003eHow to Say Babylon \u003c\/i\u003ewas also named a Best Book of the Year by \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, NPR, \u003ci\u003e The Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e Vulture\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eHarper's Bazaar, \u003c\/i\u003eamong others, and was an ALA Notable Book of the Year\u003ci\u003e. \u003c\/i\u003eThe audiobook of \u003ci\u003eHow to Say Babylon \u003c\/i\u003ewas named a Best Audiobook of the Year by\u003ci\u003e AudioFile \u003c\/i\u003emagazine. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSinclair is also the author of the poetry collection \u003ci\u003eCannibal\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of a Whiting Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Addison Metcalf Award in Literature, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. Sinclair's other honours include a Guggenheim fellowship, and fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, the Civitella Rainieri Foundation, the Elizabeth George Foundation, MacDowell, Yaddo, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She is currently an associate professor of creative writing at Arizona State University. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"37 Ink","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50583488463122,"sku":"9781982132347","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_16cfe4c0-7370-48b3-a41d-16f97c29ea23.jpg?v=1745860768","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/how-to-say-babylon-a-memoir-9781982132347","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}