Critics applaud Jesuit’s literary debut

Nigerian Jesuit Uwem Akpan has garnered considerable critical acclaim for his book of short stories, Say you’re one of them, published this week. He first attracted attention three years ago, when a lengthy short story of his was published in the New Yorker. That story, ‘An Ex-mas Feast’, opens his current collection, and it establishes the themes and sets the tone for the rest. The stories are powerful but disturbing insights into the perilous lives of the dispossessed children of Africa – lives of homelessness, begging, prostitution, glue-sniffing, HIV/AIDs – all narrated by the children themselves. For more about Akpan, see the book’s website, an interview and an essay in the New Yorker, and the Amazon.co.uk page.