Author: Uwem Akpan
Published: 2008
Category: Adult Fiction
Genre: Short Stories, family/personal drama
Pages: 358
Summary on Goodreads: 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.
Awards: Guardian First Book Award Nominee, Dayton Literary peace-prize for fiction runner up, PEN Open Book Award, Paris Book Festival for Compilation/Anthology, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction, Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best Fiction in Africa, also was an Oprah Book club selection.
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