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Say You're One of Them | 
 enlarge | Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
Category: EBooks
List Price: $17.99
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $8.00 (44%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 665
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
ASIN: B0019SYIY6
Publication Date: June 9, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Say You Are One Of Them August 13, 2008
I was attracted to this book after hearing an interview on NPR with the author. The interviewer mentioned that it was written in the voice of the children, as children. I was not disappointed. Here we see a child's eye view of some of the horrific political situations in Africa without the politics. It is written from the perspective of those who remain innocent in a world that is not innocent, even when they are swept up in the horrors themselves and become part of it.
 Good book, at times hard to understand August 13, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have enjoyed reading this book but at times it is quite hard to understand. A different language is used frequently and there is no explanation as to what the words translate to in english, so sometimes it is hard to follow the stories.
 Book review August 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a very difficult book to read, not because of its format but because of its content. It was eye opening for me and I thought I was aware of the poverty and hardship that exists in Africa. The book looks at events in the poorest parts of Africa through the eyes of children and it is painful. Read at your own risk, the risk of realizing how very fortunate you are to live where you do and the feeling that maybe you could be doing something to help.
A powerful story teller July 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Hachette Book Group USA has put out another book that I fell in love with. (The first set of books from Hachette that caught my attention were those by Stephenie Meyer. I was thrilled to learn that Twilight is being made into a movie set to open on December 12, 2008!) This latest book, Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan, was a more difficult read, though a call to action that is timely and necessary. The book is a collection of 5 short stories by Akpan, a Jesuit priest originally from Nigeria who is now living and teaching in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Akpan's is certainly not the first set of stories to chronicle the trouble life of people across Africa. What is unique about the collection is that it is told entirely from the perspective of children. Because of their resiliency, children are able to see the light and dark, simultaneously, in many situations where adults see only one aspect or the other. Children are on a quest for joy, for resolution, and most certainly for peace. As Frank McCourt said in the trilogy of books about his own life, children keep moving forward because it's the only thing they know how to do. Akpan's characters embrace that philosophy and take us along with them for the journey.
To be sure, the circumstances are horrifying - tribal wars, destruction, rape, poverty, starvation. I sometimes had to put the book down because each page is so densely packed with raw emotion and brutally honest storytelling. There is no sugar-coating here. What kept me coming back and reading late into the night was Akpan's intensely visual story telling that has us bear witness to what's happening in countries all across Africa. We are unable to turn away as we make our way through the book and we feel compelled, even obligated, to do something, to say something, to change something. Through literature, he found his voice while also giving a voice to those who are unable to speak for themselves.
Say You're One of Them was recently reviewed in USA Today. And today, there is a front page article in USA Today on Americans who are finding purpose in Africa.
Say You're One of Them July 13, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Fantastic collection of short stories about the horendous conditions in Africa. The author tells the stories so the readers know the characters deeply. Humility and humor, something not easy to portray among the horrible conditions, is evident in each story. All the stories are about children and how they handle life, and how they deal with not so nice situations. This book is a good read and I highly reccomend it
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