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Say You're One of Them cover art

Say You're One of Them

Written by: Uwem Akpan
Narrated by: Robin Miles, Dion Graham, Kevin R. Free
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Publisher's Summary

An Oprah's Book Club selection: this "electrifying" book (Washington Post) pays tribute to the wisdom and resilience of children even in the face of the most agonizing circumstances.

Uwem Akpan's stunning stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few listeners 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 listener 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.

One of the best books of the year: Wall Street Journal, People, Bloomberg News, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post Book World, and Entertainment Weekly.

©2009 Uwem Akpan (P)2009 Hachette

What the critics say

"All the promise and heartbreak of Africa today are brilliantly illuminated in this debut collection." ( Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

What listeners say about Say You're One of Them

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  • 2021-09-08

Tension at its best

Stories that dive into dark subjects. The narrative puts the listener/reader in the heart of each story, feeling the tension as if there.

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Harrowing

Each story draws you in and I found myself in tears for each beautiful, complicated character. this is a great work that conveys a harrowing insight into these people's realities. Truly a brilliant book.

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1 person found this helpful