BOOK REVIEWS

 |SAY YOU’RE ONE OF THEM|

UWEM AKPAN

In this collection of short stories by Nigerian author and Roman Catholic Priest, Uwem Akpan, each story pays tribute to the wisdom and resilience of African children living in the most agonizing circumstances. 

                             

In An Ex-mas Feast, a family living in a makeshift shanty in urban Kenya scurries to find gifts of any kind for the impending Christmas holiday. In Fattening for Gabon, a Rwandan girl relates her family’s struggles to maintain a façade of normalcy amid unspeakable acts. In What Language Is That? A young brother and sister cope with their uncle’s attempt to sell them into slavery. In Luxurious Hearses, A Muslim boy aboard a bus filled with refugees—a microcosm of today’s Africa—summons his faith to bear a treacherous ride across Nigeria. And finally, in My Parents’ Bedroom, the emotional toll of religious conflict in Ethiopia becomes viscerally clear through the eyes of childhood.

Through this collection, Akpan aims to present a brutal subject through the bewildered, resolutely chipper voice of children. All five of the stories he tells are electrifying.