Tangerinn
In Emanuela Anechoum’s nuanced novel Tangerinn, a Londoner returns to her Calabrian hometown after her father’s death, seeking closure and emotional clarity.
Mina grew up in a “provincial mafia-run” town near the sea. Her mother is Italian; her Moroccan father, Omar, ran a local bar, Tangerinn. A welcoming place for other migrants, Tangerinn gave Omar the chance to recreate “the atmosphere” of his homeland, with plentiful offerings of tagine, koftas, and mint tea.
Now almost thirty, Mina has lived in London for several years. After learning that her father has died, she returns to Calabria, where she discovers that Omar left Tangerinn to her and her sister. As Mina grieves Omar’s passing, she finds herself struggling with remembered family and personal conflicts while reflecting upon her father’s life.
The book’s sensual yet exacting prose delves into Omar’s past, revealing how poverty and a lack of opportunity hindered his ambitions. Other intriguing characters enhance the narrative, including Mina’s diligent yet kindhearted sister, Aisha, and their fiercely political grandmother. Omar’s quirky uncle, Boubakar, resembles a “Moroccan John Lennon,” and Liz, Mina’s privileged London housemate, is detailed with skewering intensity: A white liberal “digital activist,” Liz cultivates select experiences to enhance her online presence and plans to have attractive “mixed-race” children with an aesthetically appropriate man.
As the intricacies of memory and heritage evolve into future possibilities, Mina contemplates her own sense of purpose and individuality. Her gradual emergence from an inner “tangle of arrogance and solitude” is consistent with her reserved yet acute personality. Though she inherited her father’s “darker” skin and rootless intensity, Mina realizes that her exile is self-imposed rather than driven by economic circumstance or geopolitical fate.
With burnished, penetrating eloquence, the novel Tangerinn explores the entwined complexities of cultural and personal identity.
Reviewed by
Meg Nola
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