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Confrontations

Simone Atangana Bekono
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Translated by Suzanne Heukensfeldt Jansen

A bold, unsettling, and heart-breaking story about race, belonging and the legacies of violence

Salome was bullied for years and no one did a single thing to help her.
One day she finally snapped.
Now at just sixteen years old, she's being held in a secure unit for young offenders

Salome's counsellor, the man whose good opinion is key to her release, is best known for his racist gaffes on reality TV. Her father has recently been diagnosed with liver cancer and her elder sister Miriam's main preoccupation is to get out of their small, close-minded village as soon as possible. Both at home and in the unit, things are unbearably tense.

Salome finds it hard to keep her temper and harder still to think about the crime she is charged with committing. But as time passes, she finds new strength to delve into the reasons for her rage and arrive at her own understanding of punishment, penitence and the paradoxical demands made on her existence as a Black woman. 

Raw and unsentimental, Confrontations is a powerful depiction of racism and resilience from one of the Netherlands' most exciting new literary voices.
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An <em>anti-racist</em> social enterprise bookstore specialising in BIPOC books.
About Amplify Bookstore

An anti-racist social enterprise bookstore specialising in BIPOC books.

Only about 11% of books published are by BIPOC authors — so unless you specifically seek out books by BIPOC authors, you aren't likely to find very many of them organically. At Amplify, BIPOC authors are highlighted and celebrated. Here, they don't have to fight to be seen, and you don't have to fight to find them.

We hope that in our shop, you can discover a new favourite read, find stories that speak uniquely to you, learn about a culture outside your own (or more about your own histories), and gain a better understanding of the systems that connect us all.

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I’ve discovered so many new-to-me authors and the owners are so generous in their recommendations. Don’t follow the trends, set them! - let Amplify broaden your reading and sharpen your mind.

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I loved how inclusive this space was, there were dyslexia friendly books and a space for books about queer love, a bit of something for everyone.

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