Everfair

An award-winning alternate history / historical fantasy / steampunk novel set in the Belgian Congo, from acclaimed short story writer Nisi Shawl.

Now with a beautiful new cover and forward from award-winning author Cadwell Turnbull.

What happens when maimed Congolese farmers escape from their enslavement in deadly rubber groves? When 19th century socialists create their own Utopia? When a Chinese railway builder swaps hard labor for inventive brilliance? When a fighting Christian minister discovers that really old-time religion?

In Shawl's exciting steampunk adventure, brave Black missionaries team up with dream-eyed socialists and ambitious locals to found Everfair, a land of spying swarms of cats and gulls, of nuclear dirigibles buoyed by barkcloth balloons, of sleek and silent pistols shooting poison knives. But after Everfair's enemy, the Belgian tyrant Leopold II, is defeated, heroes from four continents must find a way to live together in harmony--if World War I will let them.

From acclaimed short fiction writer Nisi Shawl comes a brilliant alternate history set in the Congo, where heroes strive for a Utopia and endeavor to live together despite their differences.

Now with a beautiful new cover and a foreward from award-winning author Cadwell Turnbull.

In this re-imagining of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo, African American missionaries join forces with British socialists to purchase land from the Congo Free State's "owner," King Leopold II. This land, which they name Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven for native populations of the Congo as well as settlers from around the world, including dream-eyed Europeans attempting to create a better society, formerly enslaved people returning from America, and Chinese railroad builders escaping hard labor. Using the combined knowledge of four continents, Everfair becomes a land of spying cats and gulls, nuclear dirigibles buoyed by barkcloth balloons, and silent pistols that shoot poison knives.

With this technology, Everfair will attempt to defeat the Belgian tyrant Leopold II. But even if they can defeat their great enemy, a looming world war and political infighting may threaten to destroy everything they have built.

"A book with gorgeous sweep, spanning years and continents, loves and hates, histories and fantasies... Everfair is sometimes sad, often luminous, and always original. A wonderful achievement." -- Karen Joy Fowler