Uwem Akpan is a Nigerian Jesuit priest and writing teacher
living in Zimbabwe, and his stories are garnering much acclaim.
Just a few pages into his debut collection, it is easy to see why.
Beautiful and devastating, the five tales found in SAY YOU'RE ONE
OF THEM are at once compelling and painful to read. All told from
the narrative perspective of a child in crisis, they symbolize a
continent in crisis as well. Set in African hot spots like Ethiopia
and Rwanda, the stories revolve around themes of family and
identity, religion and ethnicity, all complicated by violence, fear
and poverty.

A destitute family in Nairobi inhales glue to stave off hunger and
watches their 12-year-old daughter turn to prostitution in "An
Ex-mas Feast." Two little girls in Ethiopia --- one Muslim, one
Christian --- are best friends until religious tensions and riots
in their city force them apart in "What Language is That?" Both
these stories are short yet highly effective. The three remaining
tales, however, are even more amazing and heartbreaking.

The nine-year-old girl at the center of "In My Parents' Bedroom" is
forced to watch as the horrors and injustices of contemporary
Rwanda play out in her house, each of her parents having to take
opposing sides. In less than 30 pages, Akpan spins a brilliant tale
that entrances and repulses, capturing the complexities of the
situation and reminding readers that there are real lives at stake
beyond this fiction.

In "Fattening for Gabon" two young siblings are being raised by a
kindly and affectionate uncle as their parents lie dying of AIDS in
their home village. Kotchipka and Yewa are spoiled and feasted by
their uncle's new friends, but Kotchipka realizes that he and his
sister are in grave danger and tries to resist their charms. By the
end he knows he must fight for his own survival and that of his
little sister, or be sold into slavery.

"Luxurious Hearses" is the story of a 16-year-old Muslim boy
escaping from one end of Nigeria to the Christian region and the
home of the father he has never known. Pretending to be a
Christian, he finds himself stuck on a bus full of Catholics and
Pentecostals, not to mention a tribal chief of the indigenous
religion. As the stuffy, overcrowded bus sits and awaits its
driver, wave after wave of tension ripple through it, threatening
violence. Differing political views and beliefs find common ground
in a hatred of Muslims, and Jubril --- far from his family and
having been turned against by other Muslims --- must keep up his
façade, all the while praying to Allah for help. The bus
becomes a microcosm of a divided nation, and Jubril's internal
exploration of identity and personal history is symbolic of the
confusion, faith, hopes and fears of its citizens. Akpan takes
readers on Jubril's fascinating journey and delivers a surprising
and very memorable ending.

In each story Akpan uses language, often a broken but lyrical
English, to show the similarities and differences between the
diverse peoples of Africa. Because of this, along with powerful
plots and sympathetic narrators, SAY YOU'RE ONE OF THEM is an
unforgettable, beautiful, authentic and wise literary call to
action. Akpan's book is highly recommended and will leave readers
wanting more of his dark, carefully moralistic and quite
extraordinary tales.