{"product_id":"9780624073093","title":"Granite","description":"\u003cp\u003eThoughtful, insightful and compelling, Granite is a well-executed imagining of what happened to cause the collapse of the civilisation of Great Zimbabwe (called Zimba Remabwe in the book.)\u003cbr\u003eWhile adult historical fiction has experienced a recent resurgence in interest, narratives are mostly drawn from European history. \u003cbr\u003eGranite is refreshingly African, illuminating a relatively unexplored area in fiction. It also shifts \"fictionalised history\" away from the European centre: in the story, Zimba Remabwe exists as a sophisticated African city state well integrated with the rest of the mid-fifteenth-century world. It is a world in which Arab scholars travel from China and India to Europe and Britain, filing their chronicles in the revered library of Timbuktu. \u003cbr\u003eThe narrative method is worth noting: because he cannot write, the story is dictated by a young nobleman called Mokomba  -  one of few survivors of his city's downfall. The penman is Shafiq, a learned Arab traveller who is a father figure after the passing of Mokomba's own father.\u003cbr\u003eEach chapter relates a series of events from these two characters' perspectives, as they fill in what the other might have glossed over. The result is a finely rendered narrative of two distinct voices.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"book-contributors\"\u003e\n  \u003cp class=\"contributor-item\"\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"contributor-role\"\u003eAuthor\u003c\/span\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=Author+Jenny+Robson\" class=\"contributor-link\"\u003eJenny Robson\u003c\/a\u003e\n  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Jenny Robson","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47584719667363,"sku":"9780624073093","price":170.0,"currency_code":"ZAR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0741\/7836\/3555\/files\/img_9780624073093_81380d4e-d41a-4697-b772-a7c13c6fd473.jpg?v=1776479632","url":"https:\/\/graffitibooks.co.za\/products\/9780624073093","provider":"Graffiti Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}