Past Participle
Dakar, Senegal, 1987: On a rainy night after a wild party, the British ambassador’s wife, Vivienne Hughes, is involved in a car crash. Her vehicle hits the motorbike of a young Senegalese doctor, Aimé Tunkara, killing him. Pleading diplomatic immunity, Vivienne and her husband flee to England.
Three decades later, Aimé’s little sister, Lily Tunkara, now a high-flying lawyer in Dakar, finds a photograph that compels her to investigate what really happened that rainy night. As Lily faces increasing hostility from the local community, she turns to Vivienne Hughes, the only remaining witness, but is either woman prepared for the truth to emerge?
Past Participle is the story of two women bound together by the faultlines of the past, a study of love and guilt, power and desire, retribution and forgiveness.
Longlisted for the Bath Novel Prize 2022
Jane Labous
Jane Labous is an award-winning author, BBC journalist and broadcaster known for her frontline coverage of human rights and gender issues, always telling the powerful human stories behind the headlines. Her debut novel, The Chameleon Girl, is published in Nigeria by Lagos-based publisher, Farafina Books.
Jane read English & French at Jesus College, Oxford, before working for the UK and international press and INGOs, most often out of Dakar, Senegal. This while developing her creative art as a writer, filmmaker and novelist, drawing on her insider knowledge of the aid sector and foreign journalism, and her unique experience of both expat and local family life in Ngor, Dakar.
Jane’s credits span a vista of international outlets, including The Independent, Voice of America, Geographical, The LA Times, BBC Africa and BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent. She has also worked as a writer and filmmaker for aid/humanitarian agencies including the UN, the World Health Organisation, Save The Children, and Amnesty International. She has won the BBC Radio 4 and Royal Geographical Society Documentary Award, the Merck More than a Mother Media Recognition & Film Award for Francophone African Countries, and a European Journalism Centre Development Reporting Grant. Her fiction has been longlisted for the Bath Novel Prize and the Santa Fé Writers’ Project Literary Award.
As a devoted single parent, Jane often writes stories, characters and locations to honour her daughter, who is half-Senegalese, reflecting their diverse family experience. Together, they love long walks, picnics and adventures in the sea air, gardening, painting, and lots and lots of reading…
Publications & Prizes:
-The Chameleon Girl (Farafina Books, 2022)
-The Bath Novel Prize 2022: Longlisted.
-The Santa Fé Writers Project Literary Award 2022: Longlisted.
-Fiction Factory First Chapter Award 2021: Longlisted.
-BBC Radio 4 and Royal Geographical Society Journey of a Lifetime Award: Award Winner (for The Sand Diggers of Mali).
-Southampton Film Festival: Best Documentary (for You Are Not Alone).
-Merck More Than A Mother Media Recognition & Film Award for Francophone Africa: Award Winner (for You Are Not Alone & Angels).
-One World Media Award: Longlisted (for Cinderellas).
-European Journalism Centre Development Reporting Grant: Award Winner (for Angels).
-Guardian Development Journalism Prize: Award Winner