Aminatta Forna
Aminatta Forna, of Sierra Leonean and Scottish heritage, talks to Razia Iqbal about her focus on countries that have experienced conflict.
Aminatta Forna, of Sierra Leonean and Scottish heritage, is an award-winning author whose first work investigated the conspiracy surrounding the death of her father who was hanged in Sierra Leone in 1975 falsely accused of treason. The Memory of Love (2010), her third book, explored the traumatic civil war in Sierra Leone and its destructive effect on the country's population. Her latest novel, The Hired Man (2013), looks at the impact of keeping secrets in a town in former Yugoslavia and is the first time she has based a novel outside Africa. She talks to Razia Iqbal about her focus on countries that have experienced conflict. Why does she feel drawn to the topics of betrayal, love and loss?