Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
With admission to The Program, Rosa fulfills her dream to continue her father's research on Bantu geometries and indigenous astronomies. Yet since his death during her childhood, she has been plagued by anxiety attacks that she dubs "The Terrors"--and by unresolved questions about her father's life. Who is his mysterious friend Mr. C? Who was her father, really?
Her cohort of talented Fellows includes Shaniqua, her roommate, studying melanin molecules and their capacity to conduct electricity in order to redefine how we think about race and biology; Richard, studying quantum mechanics; Mausi, focusing on indigenous American scientific thought; and Peralte, a kind of stepbrother whose obsessive gaming has made him a programmer of virtual worlds--all of whom will challenge Rosa's notions of ethnicity, identity, the ethics of technology, her adulation of her father, and what it means to be successful in America.
Synopsis
With admission to The Program, an elite interdisciplinary graduate cohort at the forefront of astronomy and technology, Rosa's dreams are finally within reach. Her research into the cosmos follows in the footsteps of her astronomer father's revolutionary work in Bantu geometries and Indigenous astronomies. A bona fide genius, he transformed the scientific landscape by fusing the best of Western and Indigenous scientific thought. Yet since his death during her childhood, Rosa has been plagued by anxiety attacks she dubs "The Terrors"--and by unresolved questions about her father's life. Who is his mysterious friend Mr. C? Who was her father, really?
Ambitious, hungry for success, and determined to soar, Rosa joins the ranks of America's smartest. Her cohort of talented Fellows includes Shaniqua, her roommate, who is analyzing melanin molecules and their capacity to conduct electricity; Richard, an expert in quantum mechanics; Mausi, studying Indigenous American scientific thought; and P ralte, Rosa's estranged stepbrother whose obsessive videogaming has inspired him to become a programmer. Her classmates challenge Rosa's understanding of identity, personhood, the ethics of technology, and, most painfully, her adulation of her father, whose legacy is more complicated than it appears.
Digging Stars is a paean to the cosmos and a celebration of the democratic spirit of knowledge. Novuyo Rosa Tshuma's characters explode the rigid matrices of the academy to prove that science, art, technology, and history are all planets orbiting the same sun.