Welcome to Litsy!

Wow. I bought this at Barnes & Noble as a blind-date-with-a-book promotion. It was wrapped up and the tag said “Cain and Able-esque” which is what sold me. Bonus: Obioma teaches at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, my home state. Four brothers fish in the forbidden river. A madman spits out one of his prophecies, changing the course for the family forever after.

I'm having a bit of a good run at the moment. I bought this a while back thinking I'd save it to read. A lovely distraction, beautiful, thoughtful prose and so many art and music references to check out.

From over there is a sound of argument, from over there a clamor of complaint, from over there a gospel choir, from over there the muezzin's call, from over there three or four sputtering generators, from over there the squall of the bus stop and taxi stand, from over there revelers and water sellers, from over there the neighbor's relentless television... a vast sonic mix of an ocean that beats its incessant waves the whole night through...

Think instead, he says to himself, of all the people in the Medina Koura, think of them in their homes, in their beds, think of their quotidian worries about their children's schooling. Think about their secret savings, and their delightful subterfuges, their religion and transgressions, their necessary severity, the warmth of their families, and the untranslatable consolations of their lives.

Great story to teach children about the power of their inner conscious

“There is a voice inside of you that whispers all day long, I feel that this is right for me, I know that this is wrong.”

This poem is about a narrator who listens to the voice inside their head and decides to follow it. This poem teaches the great lesson that kids should listen to their inner voice and trust their instincts

Beautifully grim and atmospheric. The grief spills off the page in poetic prose.

A group of misfits find themselves thrown together by circumstance in the dangerous, complex place that is Lagos. The best character in this novel is Lagos and the character we get to know best is the complex Minister of Education. The weaving of loyalties and circumstances is a thing of beauty.