Author:Uwem Akpan Binding: Hardcover ISBN: 0316113786 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
"Say... you're one of them!"
"Dark tales, from the Dark Continent"
"uneven but worthy voice to Africa's children"
"Beyond Genius...Tales of Stolen Childhoods"
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Editorial Review:
Uwem Akpan's stunning stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few readers will feel they've ever encountered Africa so immediately. The eight-year-old narrator of "An Ex-Mas Feast" needs only enough money to buy books and pay fees in order to attend school. Even when his twelve-year-old sister takes to the streets to raise these meager funds, his dream can't be granted. Food comes first. His family lives in a street shanty in Nairobi, Kenya, but their way of both loving and taking advantage of each other strikes a universal chord. In the second of his stories published in a New Yorker special fiction issue, Akpan takes us far beyond what we thought we knew about the tribal conflict in Rwanda. The story is told by a young girl, who, with her little brother, witnesses the worst possible scenario between parents. They are asked to do the previously unimaginable in order to protect their children. This singular collection will also take the reader inside Nigeria, Benin, and Ethiopia, revealing in beautiful prose the harsh consequences for children of life in Africa. Akpan's voice is a literary miracle, rendering lives of almost unimaginable deprivation and terror into stories that are nothing short of transcendent. (2008)
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Say... you're one of them! When psychologists treat childhood victims of trauma - war, violence or sexual abuse - they will often use props such as dolls or drawings to re-enact the event in a safe environment without judgment. These five stories are in a way voices of the child victims of Africa, told through the prop of fiction (a doll, a drawing), empty of ideological or political concern. Uwem Akpan has given nameless invisible victims a voice that is understandable and easily empathetical by people everywhere. The title is... more info
Dark tales, from the Dark Continent These stories of central Africa took me to places I didn't know existed, and didn't want to think could exist.In these stories, children endure the brunt of the worst kinds of human misery. With their hungry bellies and their quiet dignity, they also bear witness, as though they are standing in for us, the unknowing and naive, taking inventory of the horrors of ethnic wars and their relentless, unassailable poverty.The adults in the story who haven't gone mad with hatred, drugs, greed and fear, are simply... more info
uneven but worthy voice to Africa's children Akpan seeks to give voice to Africa's suffering children.* Each of his stories portrays children or adolescents caught in the midst of an African tragedy, whether it's Rwanda's genocide, child trafficking in West Africa, or the grinding poverty of street life in Kenya. Each of the stories delves and yield insight into challenges that most Western readers can barely fathom. Akpan strives and often succeeds in capturing the confusion, uncertainty, and stress that life imposes on many of the world's... more info
Beyond Genius...Tales of Stolen Childhoods wow. this book is AMAZING. it's a masterpiece: the plot, the style, the words are simply genius. the way akpan describes these stories is incredible! yes, the book makes you think, yes it's eye-opening, but even more than that, it touches you as a fellow human being. as a reader, i felt connected to the characters. as an african, i understood their hardships. as a nigerian, i praise this author! this book is wonderful on SOO many levels. akpan delicately portrays childhood innocence and how that innocence... more info
