Review by Booklist Review
Nigerian editor Ekong Udousoro has been offered the opportunity of a lifetime: a fellowship to study publishing in New York City for four months. During the fellowship, he'll learn about the business side of American publishing, and work on his current project, an anthology of writing about the Biafran War, a conflict whose aftermath still hangs heavily over the lives of Ekong and his family. Despite his fellowship, getting a visa to travel from Nigeria to the U.S. proves challenging, setting the stage for the frustrations that will plague Ekong throughout the novel. While Ekong savors his early experiences in New York, he soon discovers the undercurrent of racism that runs through everyday encounters--racism that ranges from overt dismissal of Nigerian culture and food to microaggressions in the workplace. Throughout the book, Akpan (Say You're One of Them, 2008) balances serious themes of racism, tribalism, and generational trauma with dark humor and absurd situations, satirizing American culture and attitudes toward those perceived as outsiders. This challenging, fulfilling read will fit nicely alongside the works of other gimlet-eyed observers of American society, such as Colson Whitehead and James McBride.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Akpan's ambitious debut novel (after the collection Say You're One of Them) follows a Nigerian writer in New York City as he navigates myriad permutations of racism and prejudice. Ekong Otis Udousoro has a four-month fellowship in 2016 to understudy with a small U.S. publisher and edit an anthology of stories about Nigeria's civil war of the late 1960s. Ekong, a member of Annang tribe (a "minority of minorities"), has his visa denied twice before finally securing entry with help from his stateside editor-in-chief. The all-white publishing house greets Ekong with friendly overtures, but his diverse neighbors in Hell's Kitchen offer only icy stares, leading him to take refuge in Times Square and at Starbucks. While fighting for underrepresented authors and against bloodthirsty bedbugs, Ekong learns that first impressions don't always reveal true character. Throughout, he strives to bear witness to the atrocities and lingering animosities of the Biafran War among compatriots living in the Bronx, in New Jersey, and in his village back home. 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. This layered novel tells more than it shows, but it's well worth listening to. (Nov.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In this much-anticipated debut novel, Nigerian editor Ekong Udousoro is assembling a collection of stories about the Biafran War that brutally rocked his country when he wins a publishing fellowship to continue his work in New York. He learns plenty, good and bad, about publishing (often heartlessly commercial) and about America's inherent racism. From the author of the Commonwealth Prize and PEN Open Book Award winner Say You're One of Them, an Oprah Winfrey Book Club pick.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A Nigerian editor suffers through four months in New York in Akpan's satirical first novel. Ekong Udousoro, a Nigerian book editor, heads to Manhattan to understudy at a publishing house and edit an anthology of stories by minority writers caught in the crossfire during the Biafran War, a ruthless ethnic conflict that consumed southern Nigeria in the late 1960s and whose legacy still haunts Ekong and other members of his hard-hit tribal minority. After procuring a visa--an infuriating process that provides some of the book's most affecting scenes--Ekong arrives in New York and quickly falls in love with Times Square, which feels "so global, so democratic, as though all these lights had already boiled and refined every soul down to essential humanity." Yet he also finds himself living in an illegal sublet in a shabby Hell's Kitchen apartment that hasn't been renovated in decades--and he and his neighbors soon find themselves battling not just racial tensions, but an infestation of bedbugs. Meanwhile, Ekong finds himself the only person at his publishing house who isn't White, something that is uncomfortable for him and, tellingly, for his supposedly anti-racist co-workers. (There's an amazing moment during an editorial meeting when Jack, a high-powered villain on the publicity team, says that Ekong isn't "conversant" enough about American culture to edit American stories; Ekong replies that Jack is "totally right," then adds, "But you guys have been editing African fiction, no?") America and Nigeria serve as mirrors for each other here: Both are places of incredible diversity (Nigeria has at least 250 ethnic groups), yet both are marred by the fact that old conflicts continue to circumscribe nearly every interracial (or intertribal) interaction. Yet, as important as Akpan's investigations into this subject are, his book struggles at the line and scene levels. For instance, this interaction between Ekong and his neighbor is as defined by its stilted dialogue as it is by its piercing insight into the sometimes-fraught relationship between Black Americans and Black Africans: " 'Look, Ekong, let's forget our disagreement for a moment, so we can really talk,' he said, clearing his throat. 'You're very gracious...thanks,' I said, straightening up. 'Keith, talking is good, talking is really good, bro.' 'Yes.' 'No, I'm sorry for my outburst and attack! I didn't have to say that about slaves and your ancestors--our ancestors….' 'I guess we can't resolve four-hundred-year-old bad blood by screaming at each other on the streets.' 'I know.' 'Bro, how was your day?' 'So-so.' 'Mine, too.' " A rollicking picaresque at times hindered by stilted dialogue and bulky scenes. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
