Oprah's book club pick: Say You're One of Them
The new pick for Oprah's Book Club appears to be "Say You're One of Them," Uwen Akpan's collection of short stories about the lives of African children. News reports in The Washington Post and other media provide a peek at the pick, which Oprah plans to announce later today on her show. (Update: Oprah has made the pick official.) It's been a while between picks -- the last one, about a year ago, was David Wroblewski's "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle." It became an instant best seller, of course.

Akpan's book should be a refreshing counterpoint to the frenzy over "The Lost Symbol." (I shudder to think what would have happened if Oprah had chosen Dan Brown's book for her club -- the resulting storm would have been like the earth and moon colliding.)

If you want to get a head start on Akpan's book, you can read two of the stories, "An Ex-Mas Feast" and "My Parents' Bedroom," on The New Yorker's website. And here's Akpan describing his collection, as it was being written: "I would like to see a book about how children are faring in these endless conflicts in Africa. I would like to really know how kids are dealing with the genocide in Darfur. What is the torment like for a child who went through the tsunami? I would like to get into the head of a kid soldier in Sierra Leone. It is scary and painful. And the world is not looking."

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/2009/09/oprahs_book_club_pick_say_your.html

I heard this today

I will try to look for the book.

Oprah's endorsement is gonna do wonders for him

Just watched Oprah and heard it. This should make front page. Seun please take note.

Nice! Oprah fit helep am move units.

The novel is almost guaranteed to be an instant bestseller. This will be a great financial windfall for him. And he is the first African whose novel has been choosen on Oprah's book club. Kudos to him.

will read it.

Is Oprah trying to cash in on Tinapa and any other expected windfall? (she'd better not hold her breath- Nigeria can turn out the opposite of what someone expected oh)

but seriously, we need more new writers in Nigeria.




offtopic:

Currently I'm looking for a book which won the prize for modern Arabic fiction (middle eastern author)- I cant seem to find it anywhere.

Just read one story out of the book.
Sad. It almost drove me to tears . .almost

The writing was rather domestic, and the dialogue,
too much for me.

Still, its worth reading.

this is what that useless Dora Akinyuli be encouraging, building schools and giving scholarships to exemplary students, thus producing more wole shoyinka, chinua achebe and uwen akpan , instead the useless woman is busy banning anything with the name nigeria in it

I thought she considered all Nigerians as worthless thieves? Why get happy over anything she does.

pls is this Uwem Akpan the same Fr. Uwem Akpan of Nigeria who won an award for his book sometime this year

franctony:

pls is this Uwem Akpan the same Fr. Uwem Akpan of Nigeria who won an award for his book sometime this year

Yes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uwem_Akpan

Am proud of the dude.

Kenezi:

I thought she considered all Nigerians as worthless thieves? Why get happy over anything she does.

umm oprah didn't say such a thing

And so what?

Kudos to Akwa ibom/Cross River, Long Live Niaja!!!!!

Kudos to Akwa ibom/Cross River,

it was only a matter of time, until they turned it tribal

*sigh*

WHO CARES !!!!!!!!!!!!!! My book is on kiss my as.s dot com

Gamine:

it was only a matter of time, until they turned it tribal

*sigh*

Astute observation. Watch how they'll tribalise the whole thing.

Good news! shows Nigeria has got lot of stuffs to offer.

nuzo:

Yes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uwem_Akpan

Am proud of the dude.

really proud of him. not surprised though, you dont bet to get anything less from these catholic Jesuits. you need to hear this priest's preaching in Lagos whenever he's in the country. it's more of lectures.

Long Live the Jesuits
LOng Live the Catholic Priesthood
Long Live the Catholics (I'd always proudly say I'm one of them)

really proud of him. not surprised though, you dont bet to get anything less from these catholic Jesuits. you need to hear this priest's preaching in Lagos whenever he's in the country. it's more of lectures.

Long Live the Jesuits
LOng Live the Catholic Priesthood
Long Live the Catholics (I'd always proudly say I'm one of them)

It was only a matter of time until they turned it Religious

Kudos to the author, have read one of the stories on New Yorker was quite good.

Gamine what do you mean by domestic or dialogue is too much for you?

Maybe you can check out my story and give me some feedback. Thanks.

Domestic, well. , as in 'tame' 'safe'

Too much dialogue. .just as it implies

i dont like many books were the characters
constantly talk to each other in "" <present time>

so proud of the guy.

am working on a book too.

I saw this was the most searched stuff on yahoo, yay, the guy is going to help me get ass. When I tell girls that i am from nigeria this what they would think about, not 419

ok, spam bot dont chase me ooh

Gamine:

it was only a matter of time, until they turned it tribal
*sigh*

Gamine:

It was only a matter of time until they turned it Religious

This was hilarious! Got me laughing crazily,

Anyway, good job done by Uwem. I will be ordering the book soonest.

Dont know what to make of his writing style. Seems all over the place with too many minor details.

What do i know. . , . . . . as long as Oprah endorses it. it'll sell like hot cake. Congrats to him.

Gamine:

It was only a matter of time until they turned it Religious

shameful.

The guy surely make millions

Good one. I'd love to get a copy.

thank God for this. our politicians, bankers and yahoo-yahoo guys have really given us a bad name.