Why read How to Say Babylon?

Book cover of How to Say Babylon: A Memoir

Book description

With echoes of Educated and Born a Crime, How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the author’s struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing, ruled by her father’s strict patriarchal views and repressive control of her childhood, to find her own voice as a woman and…

Explore

Topics

Genres

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

2 authors picked How to Say Babylon as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

C.C. Avram

Author

I just could not put this book down. Apart from learning new things a mile a minute, my vocabulary increased. Sinclair takes a deep dive into the life and culture of Rastafarians, and since I love Bob Marley, this was especially intriguing. Most of all, she can write—I mean really write.

From C.C.'s list on The best and most exciting World books that introduce different cultures.

Mariel Buqué

Author

In this searing story of redemption, Safiya Sinclair helped me capture a vivid story of how legacies of patriarchal values that are situated in religion, encourage women to abandon themselves, leaving us in a state of perpetual and multigenerational suppression, that prove to be traumatic.

This book took me to new insights on the inner workings of religious trauma, placing that trauma within a patriarchal history that is very much alive today, not just in Jamaica, where the memoir is centered, but in all parts of the world.

I was able to see pieces of this story in my very…

From Mariel's list on The best books by cycle breakers who broke the cycle of trauma.