Say You're One of Them (Oprah's Book Club): Amazon.ca: Uwem Akpan: Books

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Book Description

Publication Date: Oct 13 2009 | Series: Oprah's Book Club

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.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } 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

Product Details

Audio CD
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company; Unabridged edition (Oct 13 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1607883414
ISBN-13: 978-1607883418
Product Dimensions: 13.3 x 1.9 x 14.6 cm
Shipping Weight: 136 g

Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #626,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Nigerian-born Jesuit priest Akpan transports the reader into gritty scenes of chaos and fear in his rich debut collection of five long stories set in war-torn Africa. An Ex-mas Feast tells the heartbreaking story of eight-year-old Jigana, a Kenyan boy whose 12-year-old sister, Maisha, works as a prostitute to support her family. Jigana's mother quells the children's hunger by having them sniff glue while they wait for Maisha to earn enough to bring home a holiday meal. In Luxurious Hearses, Jubril, a teenage Muslim, flees the violence in northern Nigeria. Attacked by his own Muslim neighbors, his only way out is on a bus transporting Christians to the south. In Fattening for Gabon, 10-year-old Kotchikpa and his younger sister are sent by their sick parents to live with their uncle, Fofo Kpee, who in turn explains to the children that they are going to live with their prosperous godparents, who, as Kotchikpa pieces together, are actually human traffickers. Akpan's prose is beautiful and his stories are insightful and revealing, made even more harrowing because all the horror—and there is much—is seen through the eyes of children. (June) Read a web-exclusive q&a with Uwem Akpan at www.publishersweekly.com/akpan.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Awe is the only appropriate response to Uwem Akpan's stunning debut, Say You're One of Them, a collection of five stories so ravishing and sad that I regret ever wasting superlatives on fiction that was merely very good. A." (Entertainment Weekly (EW Pick / Grade A) Jennifer Reese 2008)

"[A] startling debut collection... Akpan is not striving for surreal effects. He is summoning miseries that are real.... He fuses a knowledge of African poverty and strife with a conspicuously literary approach to storytelling filtering tales of horror through the wide eyes of the young." (The New York Times Janet Maslin )

"Uwem Akpan's searing Say You're One of Them captures a ravaged Africa through the dry-eyed gaze of children trying to maintain a sense of normalcy amid chaos." (Vogue Megan O'Grady )

"The humor, the endurance, the horrors and grace-Akpan has captured all of it.... The stories are not only amazing and moving, and imbued with a powerful moral courage-they are also surprisingly expert.... Beautifully constructed, stately in a way that offsets their impoverished scenarios. Akpan wants you to see and feel Africa, its glory and its pain. And you do, which makes this an extraordinary book." (O Magazine Vince Passaro )

"Uwem Akpan, a Nigerian Jesuit priest, has said he was inspired to write by the 'humor and endurance of the poor,' and his debut story collection...about the gritty lives of African children - speaks to the fearsome, illuminating truth of that impulse." (Elle Lisa Shea )

"Haunting prose.... A must-read." (Kirkus Reviews (starred review) )

"Uwem Akpan's stunning short story collection, Say You're One of Them, offers a richer, more nuanced view of Africa than the one we often see on the news....Akpan never lets us forget that the resilient youngsters caught up in these extraordinary circumstances are filled with their own hopes and dreams, even as he assuredly illuminates the harsh realities." (Essence Patrik Henry Bass )

"In the corrupt, war-ravaged Africa of this starkly beautiful debut collection, identity is shifting, never to be trusted...Akpan's people, and the dreamlike horror of the worlds they reveal, are impossible to forget." (People Kim Hubbard )

"All the promise and heartbreak of Africa today are brilliantly illuminated in this debut collection..." (Seattle Post-Intelligencer John Marshall )

"Akpan's brilliance is to present a brutal subject through the bewildered, resolutely chipper voice of children...All five of these stories are electrifying." (NPR's "Fresh Air" Maureen Corrigan )

"...a tour de force that takes readers into the lives glimpsed in passing on the evening news...These are stories that could have been mired in sentimentality. But the spare, straightforward language - there are few overtly expressed emotions, few adjectives--keeps the narratives moving, unencumbered and the pages turning to the end." (Associated Press )

"brilliant...an extraordinary portrait of modern Africa... [Akpan]... is an important and gifted writer who should be read." (USA TODAY Deirdre Donahue )

"This fierce story collection from a Nigerian-born Jesuit priest brings home Africa's most haunting tragedies in tales that take you from the streets of Nairobi to the Hutu-Tutsi genocide." (Minneapolis Star Tribune Margo Hammond & Ellen Heltzel )

"Akpan combines the strengths of both fiction and journalism - the dramatic potential of the one and the urgency of the other - to create a work of immense power...He is a gifted storyteller capable of bringing to life myriad characters and points of view...the result is admirable, artistically as well as morally." (Christian Science Monitor Adelle Waldman )

"It is not merely the subject that makes Akpan's...writing so astonishing, translucent, and horrifying all at once; it is his talent with metaphor and imagery, his immersion into character and place....Uwem Akpan has given these children their voices, and for the compassion and art in his stories I am grateful and changed." (Washington Post Book World (front page review) Susan Straight )

"Say You're One of Them is a book that belongs on every shelf." (New York Daily News Sherryl Connelly )

"Searing...In the end, the most enduring image of these disturbing, beautiful and hopeful stories is that of slipping away. Children disappear into the anonymous blur of the big city or into the darkness of the all-encompassing bush. One can only hope that they survive to live another day and tell another tale." (San Francisco Chronicle June Sawyers )

"These stories are complex, full of respect for the characters facing depravity, free of sensationalizing or glib judgments. They are dispatches from a journey, Akpan makes clear, which has only begun. It is to their credit that grim as they are-you cannot but hope these tales have a sequel." (Cleveland Plain-Dealer John Freeman )

"An important literary debut.... Juxtaposed against the clarity and revelation in Akpan's prose-as translucent a style as I've read in a long while--we find subjects that nearly render the mind helpless and throw the heart into a hopeless erratic rhythm out of fear, out of pity, out of the shame of being only a few degrees of separation removed from these monstrous modern circumstances...The reader discovers that no hiding place is good enough with these stories battering at your mind and heart." (Chicago Tribune Alan Cheuse )

"A stupefyingly talented young Nigerian priest. Akpan never flinches from his difficult subjects--poverty, slavery, mass murder--but he has the largeness of soul to make his vision of the terrible transcendent." (Bloomberg News Jeffrey Burke and Craig Seligman )

"Any of the six stories in this collection set in Africa is enough to break a reader's heart. Two are novella length, including a tour de force, 'Luxurious Hearses,' which takes place on a crowded bus." (From citation by Larry Dark for SAY YOU'RE ONE OF THEM, a Notable Book finalist for The Story Prize. )

"Robin Miles adopts a lovely French-African accent, and if she allows Akpan's beautiful turns of phrase to shine, the underlying tension and fear are also never far from the surface. Miles also narrates "What Language Is That?" This story is partially unaccented, a choice that accentuates the second-person point of view...Dion Graham, in Kenyan-accented English, successfully embodies the family's mother and father, teenaged daughter, and young son" (Publishers Weekly AudioFile 2009)

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Educate Yourself about the children of Africa Oct 27 2009

By V. Mathies

Format:Paperback

This is a finely written and deeply compassionate picture of life on a troubled continent. Told through the eyes of children, each of the stories in this collection has something educational for those of us privileged enough to live in the West. The author's skill is in helping you to live these realities. No matter how deep our troubles seem to be here, these children's stories give you perspective. They also motivated me to think about what organizations I could contact to help relieve some of this misery. Don't miss this; it's one of the best things I've read this year.

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Mrs. Q: Book Addict ~Visit my blog for newest reviews~ Oct 28 2009

By Mrs. Q: Book Addict TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

'Say You're One Of Them' is a collection of five short stories written from a child's perspective about life in Africa. These children face poverty, genocide, religious conflicts and unimaginable atrocities. This is not a book of hope, it's a book that will keep your mind wandering. Through the five stories we see how these children loose their purity. Children's lives are guided by their living situation. Imagine being a 12 year old prostitute and your parents are happy that you have 'white' clients because your salary, funds your brothers education. Imagine living with your uncle, while he is trying to sell you and your sister to the highest bidder, to raise his status in the Church. These stories are not for the light-hearted. Although, I really enjoyed the collection of short stories. However, I must admit I did find the dialogues difficult to follow. Some stories I wished were a little shorter.

'An Ex-Mas Feast'

This is the first story in the collection. We are introduced to a destitute family living in a make-shift shanty. Maisha is a 12 year old prostitute and her family encourages her 'profession' in order to fund her brothers education. Maisha's relationship with her parents is strained, and she is constantly quarrelling with them. She's not only is the breadwinner in the home, she seems to be adult. In this story we see the destruction of the family. When Maisha decides she no longer wants to be in the home, her brother decides he no longer wants to go to school much to his parents dismay. He rather have his sister than his education.

'Fattening For Gabon'

The second story in the collection is as shocking as the first. We begin the novel learning the Uncle is trying to sell his nephew and niece. The children are forced to live with their Uncle while their parents are living with AIDS. The children are introduced to their 'godparents' who they are told are paying for their parents medicine and giving them many gifts. The children enjoy the attention, and enjoy the luxurious meals at first. They are oblivious to their Uncle's intentions, When they being to notice his unusual behaviour they being to question their godparents acts.

'What Language Is That?'

This is the third story and incredible short. Two best friends wake up one morning and are told by their parents that they can no longer speak to each other due to religious conflicts. Although, the parents are trying to protect the children we see the impact this has on them.

'Luxurious Hearses.'

Jubril is a young sixteen year old Muslim who was born to a Christian father and Muslim mother. His brother adopted the Christian faith and was eventually stoned in front of him. While the violent in his area had escalated Jubril feels he must escape. Jubril's only hope is to escape on a bus full of Christians. He hides his right hand being cut off, his name and his Muslim ideas. He is afraid of women and television, but must try to come to terms with them on the bus.

'My Parents Bedroom'

This is the last story in the collection. This story really affected me. The children in the story have a Hutu father and a Tutsi mother. The parents are forced to choose between the tribes, this results in the children witnessing their mothers death at the hands of their father.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed the book. I'm not a huge fan of short stories and for that reason I didn't love the book. I do recommend it, and I am happy that I read it. However, I do feel it is a little overrated because Oprah chose it as a book club choice.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Giving a voice to the voiceless April 6 2011

By A. McCaskill

Format:Paperback

I usually read literary short stories with an attitude of detached admiration - of the narrative technique, of the shaping of the story arc, that kind of thing. Very rarely do I feel the kind of tension I did reading these -- I think it's the closest I've come to a genuine experience of Aristotle's catharsis involving pity and fear. In 'Fattening for Gabon' I was riveted, anticipating not just the actual taking of the children, but the realization that the adoptive godparents of whom they were so enamoured were actually child traffickers, and that their uncle was selling them. The hysterical shame and torment on the part of the uncle is horrible to see. In "Luxurious Hearses", a young Muslim boy is trying to pass for Christian so he can ride on a bus to his father's home in southern Nigeria, fleeing religious violence in the north. I was sick with tension reading about how he tries to disguise his accent and hide his missing hand, which will reveal him as a Muslim. I don't know how anyone turns the discomfort and recognition provoked by a book like this into a positive change (other than making another donation to World Vision). Anything that puts a face on the statistics has to be a move in the right direction.

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