Greenland

A Novel

By: David Santos Donaldson

Narrated by: Theo Solomon

Shortlisted for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

A dazzling, debut novel-within-a-novel in the vein of The Prophets and Memorial, about a young author writing about the secret love affair between E.M. Forster and Mohammed el Adl—in which Mohammed’s story collides with his own, blending fact and fiction.

In 1919, Mohammed el Adl, the young Egyptian lover of British author E. M. Forster, spent six months in a jail cell. A century later, Kip Starling has locked himself in his Brooklyn basement study with a pistol and twenty-one gallons of Poland Spring to write Mohammed’s story.

Kip has only three weeks until his publisher’s deadline to immerse himself in the mind of Mohammed who, like Kip, is Black, queer, an Other. The similarities don't end there. Both of their lives have been deeply affected by their confrontations with Whiteness, homophobia, their upper crust education, and their white romantic partners. As Kip immerses himself in his writing, Mohammed’s story – and then Mohammed himself – begins to speak to him, and his life becomes a Proustian portal into Kip's own memories and psyche. Greenland seamlessly conjures two distinct yet overlapping worlds where the past mirrors the present, and the artist’s journey transforms into a quest for truth that offers a world of possibility.

Electric and unforgettable, David Santos Donaldson’s tour de force excavates the dream of white assimilation, the foibles of interracial relationships, and not only the legacy of a literary giant, but literature itself.

Unexpected story with literary depth

Loved the books profound and unexpected plot. Lovely writing. Lots of literary allusions from Toni Morrison to Ralph Ellison and Walter Whitman, plus Franz Fanon wretched of the earth. Great plot and characters with North Pole too.

Transcendent post-modern novel dissecting Realism

how was the Narrator?

He was just perfect for the story & text itself!
I'd suggest anyone to purchase the actual text itself & look at literary motifs like water & how he breaks down Realism, from Russian to African American to perhaps something new? he even pitches self-referential magical Realism in but ending was Truly a Wowser moment!
Can't wait to see what this guy writes next!

Incredible, and compelling

This book is absolutely brilliant! I’ve never felt compelled to write a review for any book I’ve read, but David Santos Donaldson takes you on such an incredible journey in this book, I felt a need to do so. There is humor and poignancy, and a host of other emotions that are evoked through out the story. Not a dull spot in it. Well done Mr. Donaldson!

Great narration

The book certainly went in different unexpected directions. Overall I liked it. It is usually good not to be able to predict where a novel will take one. The trip was made most enjoyable by the narrator. His different voices and many dialects could have been difficult to follow…and wasn’t.

Greenland

A great book made even better by the narration. Theo Solomon, the voice talent who reads the book for Audible, should get an Academy Award for the way he slips in and out of different accents and ways of speaking.