![i hate my village i hate my village](http://www.thesaturni.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/HATE-MY-VILLAGE2.jpg)
In the novel New York, My Village the author, Uwem Akpan, follows the experiences of a young Black African adult adjusting to life and work in New York City. ― Father James Martin, SJ, bestselling author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage and Learning to Pray Once that captivating voice grabs you, from the very first page, you never want to stop listening." The most compelling part of this debut novel of a Nigerian writer's immersion in American culture and the publishing world is the narrator's voice, utterly alive, frighteningly observant, deeply compassionate.
![i hate my village i hate my village](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48583648341_cc2dcff8d4_b.jpg)
― Elif Batuman, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Idiot Unforgettable characters, deeply realistic and "relatable" interpersonal conflicts, a contagious love of life, fresh insights into the crazy-making properties of racist ideology: New York, My Village has it all. And it's the great bedbug novel of New York City we have all been waiting for, some of us without knowing it! I adored this book." He has transformed the isolating and exhausting intricacies of war trauma into a compulsively readable novel, at once hilarious, utterly harrowing, profoundly optimistic, and horrifically informative. I'm still trying to figure out how Uwem Akpan did it. ― Celeste Ng, New York Times-bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere Uwem Akpan's debut novel maps the constantly shifting ground of grappling with prejudice and guilt-and how we might find connections, and compassion, nevertheless." "A searing sendup of publishing, racial biases, and humanity's near-infinite capability to look away from the most troubling parts of ourselves, New York, My Village is that rare thing: a funhouse mirror that reflects back the truth. We are privileged to get to know him, too." - BookPage "Of all the characters in New York, My Village, Ekong knows who he is. "A rollicking picaresque at times hindered by stilted dialogue and bulky scenes." - Kirkus Reviews This layered novel tells more than it shows, but it's well worth listening to." - Publishers Weekly "Akpan writes as much to educate as to entertain, adding lengthy and lucid historical passages with footnotes to source material along with excerpts from the book Ekong is editing.
I hate my village full#
Haunted by the devastating darkness of civil war and searingly observant about the myriad ways that tribalism defines life everywhere from the villages of Africa to the villages within New York City, New York, My Village is nevertheless full of heart, hilarity, and hope. He is thrilled when a publishing fellowship gives him the opportunity to continue his work in Manhattan while learning the ins and outs of publishing.īut while his sophisticated colleagues meet him with kindness and hospitality, he is soon exposed to the industry's colder, ruthlessly commercial underbelly, boorish and hostile neighbors, and―beneath a superficial cosmopolitanism―a bedrock of white cultural superiority and racist assumptions about Africa, its peoples, and worst of all, its food. A daring first novel in the great picaresque tradition―both buoyant comedy and devastating satire―by the author of the best-selling story collection Say You're One of Them.Įkong Udousoro is a Nigerian editor undertaking a reckoning with the brutal recent history of his homeland by curating a collection of stories about the Biafran War.