Gods and Soldiers

March 23, 2009
Spillman, editor and cofounder of lit journal Tin House
, brings together a diaspora full of urgency and possibility, featuring recent fiction and nonfiction (mostly fiction) from 30 African authors. First up is Chinua Achebe, author of the groundbreaking Things Fall Apart
, looking at North African writers often excluded from the canon, reminding readers that Africa is far from homogeneous (entries come translated from Arabic, Zulu, French and other languages). Each piece finds a human story to illuminate the continent’s history of plight and promise, turning up a range of voices: Helon Habila’s breathtaking tale of a political prisoner forced to write poems for the prison superintendent’s girlfriend; a scene from Ngugi wa Thong’o’s novel Wizard of the Crow
depicting an Orwellian celebration for an unnamed ruler; Patrice Nganang’s essay “The Senghor Complex” examining the influence of poet Léopold Senghor, Senegal’s first president (“ writers of my generation,” he’s “everyone’s grandfather”). This collection sheds light on a multifarious continent too often thought of in one-size-fits-all terms.

April 15, 2009
Spillman (editor, "Tin House" magazine) writes that he realized a few years ago that he was witnessing an African literary renaissance. Here, he includes well-known authors (such as Chinua Achebe) and lesser-known authors alike and organizes selections geographically by region. Each section begins with a nonfiction piece followed by several fictional works. Spillman opens with a brief introduction and finishes with short biographical notes. There are important and beautiful pieces here; however, many of the pieces are excerpted from longer works, and Spillman does not offer context beyond a short bit in his introduction to the book. The initial publication dates are not mentioned, and one essay dates back to 1965. For those unfamiliar with African political history and literatures, this collection is less than accessible. Still, it's a good jumping-off point that gets across Spillman's messagethere's a whole lot of great stuff currently coming out of Africa that deserves exposure. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries.Audrey Snowden, Cleveland P.L.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2009
The African experience in a postcolonial, globalized world is a big theme in this fine collection by 30 writers across the continent, from Nobel winners Chinua Achebe andNadine Gordimer to Nigerias rising star Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In her essay, The Politics of Reading, the fine Moroccan novelist Laila Lalami talks about the African diaspora, including those who have settled in the West and write in English. In a hilarious farce, Abdourahman A. Waberi mocks the white peril and the huddled masses emigrating from Europe to Africa. In one of the most moving short stories, Souvenirs, by Leila Aboulela, a man who works on an oil rig in Scotlandleaves his wife and child behind in Aberdeen to visit his mother in Sudan, confronting their painful distance. Organized by regionWest, Francophone, North, East, former Portuguese colonies, and Southernsome are essays, but most are fiction. The stories address AIDS, postcolonial liberation followed by dictatorship and compliance, the rise of womens voices, and more. A landmark collection for libraries and college classes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)