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Say Youre One Of Them

Average rating: 4/5

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Say Youre One Of Them

by Uwem Akpan

Little, Brown And Company | September 18, 2009 | Hardcover

Each story in this jubilantly acclaimed collection pays testament to the wisdom and resilience of children, even in the face of the most agonizing circumstances.

A family living in a makeshift shanty in urban Kenya scurries to find gifts of any kind for the impending Christmas holiday. A Rwandan girl relates her family''s struggles to maintain a facade of normalcy amid unspeakable acts. A young brother and sister cope with their uncle''s attempt to sell them into slavery. Aboard a bus filled with refugees-a microcosm of today''s Africa-a Muslim boy summons his faith to bear a treacherous ride across Nigeria. Through the eyes of childhood friends the emotional toll of religious conflict in Ethiopia becomes viscerally clear.
 
Uwem Akpan''s debut signals the arrival of a breathtakingly talented writer who gives a matter-of-fact reality to the most extreme circumstances in stories that are nothing short of transcendent. 
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Reviews

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    Rating: 1/5

    Depressing

    Mary Want

    6 weeks ago

    I found after struggling through this book, I was not the better for it. A very tough read. Every time I put this book down I felt I had wasted precious time. I really didn't see the purpose in writing this. I feel I have a lot of compassion but this did not stir me in that way.

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      helpful to you?

    Rating: 1/5

    Dark and tough read

    Chiara Fritzler

    16 months ago

    This book is dark and disturbing. It left me with a sense of hopelessness and despair. Despite feeling perhaps enlightened to the situations that children in Africa may face, I wish I had not read this book. The description says it's about the "wisdom and resilience of children", which is exceptionally misleading. It makes the book out to sound like it has some sort of positive spin on the atrocities these children face, but the actual stories on the pages don't reflect this at all (other than perhaps "what language is that", but that's a stretch). Beyond that, the author rambles on about unnecessary details that drag the story down. Don't buy this book unless you enjoy reading about how cruel the human race can be to children and how little their lives and opinions are valued.

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    Rating: 3/5

    Really Interesting

    Maureen Thompson

    16 months ago

    As I read some of the stories it really hit home what happens in other countries. I see stories in the newspaper and on tv about social and political unrest and because we live here in canada don't really understand. "What Language is that" showed how much kids are kids, how they want to play with their friends but how all of the other stuff gets in the way , how religion and language and politics and adults can make it all so hard. Hard to understand why you can't just be a kid ."My Parents Bedroom made me cry, the mother trys to hide herself and the husband protects her to the best of his ability. The kids don't understand what is going on . The whole racial and religious persecution is horrible. The way the mother gives her life for her children and husband to live broke my heart.I don't know if there will ever be a time when this kind of brutality ends in parts of the world. This book was a real eye opener for me

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    Rating: 5/5

    compelling

    rickyshot

    2 years ago

    amazing book. an eye opener. The author tells the five stories from the persepctive of the child involved. Very disturbing. This book will shatter you out of your dreamworld here in the Americas and let you know what is really going on in the world particularly Africa. The events are all ongoing or recent. The author has a keen mind of how a child would experience this which to my mind takes some talent. Seriously this can give you nightmares but must be read. We cannot remain complacent. I feel every teenager should have this as requried reading in Grade 9. This spoiled generation needs to know what time it is and count our blessings.

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From the Publisher

Each story in this jubilantly acclaimed collection pays testament to the wisdom and resilience of children, even in the face of the most agonizing circumstances.

A family living in a makeshift shanty in urban Kenya scurries to find gifts of any kind for the impending Christmas holiday. A Rwandan girl relates her family''s struggles to maintain a facade of normalcy amid unspeakable acts. A young brother and sister cope with their uncle''s attempt to sell them into slavery. Aboard a bus filled with refugees-a microcosm of today''s Africa-a Muslim boy summons his faith to bear a treacherous ride across Nigeria. Through the eyes of childhood friends the emotional toll of religious conflict in Ethiopia becomes viscerally clear.
 
Uwem Akpan''s debut signals the arrival of a breathtakingly talented writer who gives a matter-of-fact reality to the most extreme circumstances in stories that are nothing short of transcendent. 

About the Author

Uwem Akpan was born in Ikot Akpan Eda in southern Nigeria. After studying philosophy and English at Creighton and Gonzaga universities, he studied theology for three years at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. He was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 2003 and received his MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan in 2006. "My Parents'' Bedroom," a story from his short story collection, Say You''re One of Them, was one of five short stories by African writers chosen as finalists for The Caine Prize for African Writing 2007. Say You''re One of Them won the Commonwealth Writers'' Prize for Best First Book (Africa Region) 2009 and PEN/Beyond Margins Award 2009, and was finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. In 2007, Akpan taught at a Jesuit college in Harare, Zimbabwe. Now he serves at Christ the King Church, Ilasamaja-Lagos, Nigeria.

Hardcover

368 Pages, 5.75 x 8.5 x 1.25 in

September 18, 2009

Little, Brown And Company

English


0316086363
9780316086363

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From the Critics

"An important literary debut.... The reader discovers that no hiding place is good enough with these stories battering at your mind and heart."

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