Dream Country

Starred review from October 1, 2018
This expansive tale, composed of interwoven stories, features members of a family tree that spans five generations and two continents, united in their sense of displacement and longing for a homeland where they can thrive. Alternating between the United States and Liberia, Gibney (See No Color) captures moments of wrenching decision-making in her characters’ lives. The opening story, set in 2008 in a Minnesota community roiled by ethnic tensions between Liberians and African-Americans, features drug-dealing teenager Kollie, whose parents return him to Liberia to learn to “be a good boy there again.” In the second story, set in 1926 Liberia, 18-year-old Togor flees brutal Congo soldiers. The third story follows Yasmin and her family as they move from 1827 Norfolk, Va., to Monrovia, Liberia, to escape slavery and establish a home. The final stories circle back to Kollie’s immediate family—concluding with a chapter devoted to his queer younger sister, Angel, in 2018 Minneapolis. With riveting, lyrical prose, Gibney’s accomplished novel explores universal themes of home, family, power struggles, and endurance while demonstrating the liberating power of storytelling. Ages 14–up.

Narrator Bahni Turpin moves easily between the accents and emotions, times and places of five linked stories, beginning with that of Kollie Flomo in 2008. The 17-year-old Liberian refugee has undiagnosed PTSD that results in confusion, anger, and eventually his return to reform school in Monrovia. From there, the stories shift abruptly and without apparent reason. In 1926, Togar runs from colonialists and militia; in 1826, Yasmine Wright, a freed slave, returns to Liberia to gain greater control of her destiny. Then the hero changes to Kollie's father and his failed dreams of revolution. Finally, Angela, Kollie's sister, writes in 2018, giving greater context to these histories, each an unwritten ancestral tale she imagines. Turpin honors the fast pace and lyrical power of each while unifying the themes of trauma, disconnection, dreams, and endurance. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine