Voice of America - by E C Osondu (Paperback)

About the Book

E.C. Osondu is a man with a clear head and a great ear, writing from crucial places. Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom and The Corrections

With observant wonder and subtle humor, [Osondu] portrays our unique capacity for hope and hopelessness rolled together. Mary Gaitskill, author of Bad Behavior and Veronica

This collection of vivid, compulsively readable stories marks the debut of Nigerian author E.C. Osondu, winner of the 2009 Caine Prize for African Writing. In the tradition of Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, J.M. Coetzee, and Chinua Achebe (all patrons of the Caine Prize), Osondu s stories are wise, soul-stirring, and deeply compelling. In electrifying prose, he articulate the struggles of Nigerian immigrants in America, and refugees, villagers, and ex-patriots in Africa. Voice of America marks the beginning for a brave and remarkable new voice in African Literature."

Book Synopsis

"E.C. Osondu is a man with a clear head and a great ear, writing from crucial places." --Jonathan Franzen, author of Freedom and The Corrections

"With observant wonder and subtle humor, [Osondu] portrays...our unique capacity for hope and hopelessness rolled together." --Mary Gaitskill, author of Bad Behavior and Veronica

This collection of vivid, compulsively readable stories marks the debut of Nigerian author E.C. Osondu, winner of the 2009 Caine Prize for African Writing. In the tradition of Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, J.M. Coetzee, and Chinua Achebe (all patrons of the Caine Prize), Osondu's stories are wise, soul-stirring, and deeply compelling. In electrifying prose, he articulate the struggles of Nigerian immigrants in America, and refugees, villagers, and ex-patriots in Africa. Voice of America marks the beginning for a brave and remarkable new voice in African Literature.

From the Back Cover

E.C. Osondu is a fearless and passionate new writer whose stories echo the joys and struggles of a cruel, beautiful world. His characters burst from the page--they fight, beg, love, grieve, but ultimately they are dreamers. Set in Nigeria and the United States, Voice of America moves from the fears and dreams of boys and girls in villages and refugee camps to the disillusionment and confusion of young married couples living in America, and then back to bustling Lagos.

Written with exhilarating energy and warmth, the stories of Voice of America are full of humor, pathos, and wisdom--an electrifying debut from a winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing.

Review Quotes

"E. C. Osondu has written uncannily direct stories with nothing 'posed' about them. This is a collection of real power, surprise, and harsh beauty." - Amy Hempel
"Osondu looks at the human condition in all its poignant absurdity; with observant wonder and subtle humor, he portrays our capacity for heartbreak, resilience, love, courage, sorrow, and most of all, our unique capacity for hope and hopelessness rolled together." - Mary Gaitskill
"Tinged with hilarity. . . . Osondu juxtaposes the richness and desperation of life 'on the ground' in Africa with the actualities of the American dream. . . . He goes beyond mere examination to achieve artistry. . . . This book is essential." - Library Journal
"A man with a clear head and a great ear, writing from crucial places." - Jonathan Franzen
"A big-hearted story collection. . . . Meticulous and energetic, these stories brim with stubborn hope sprung free from life's dark realities." - Elle
"Osondu's excellent short stories, set in both Nigeria and the U.S., reveal the vast cultural chasm that persists between our countries. . . . These richly shaded tales explore old ways and new, wealth and poverty, myth, and misapprehension." - Booklist
"A fantastic short story collection. . . .Osondu's stories cleverly combine narrative understatement, a vigorous prose style and the ability to shock and delight. He deftly interweaves recurring thematic threads such as deception and self-deception, the traditions that both bind and suffocate, and the moral choices people make. . . .Outstanding." - Financial Times
"The 18 stories, each around a dozen pages long, in E.C. Osondu's Voice of America seem to have poured out of him like water. They have a fluency, an evenness of tone and texture, that creates an illusion of transparency and simplicity. There's great comedy--and also artistry--in this. . . .The stories hew closely to a single theme-the relations between Nigerians and America. But they elaborate, with virtuosic inventiveness, countless variation on that theme. . . .Classic short-stories." - The Spectator
"Promising. . . . Warm, humane. . . . Osondu's first collection is a grim but compassionate look at desperate Nigerians both at home and abroad. . . . Osondu convinces us not only of the perils and hazards but also of the pathos of these people's plights, and of the resiliency that makes them reinvent themselves again and again." - Kirkus Reviews
"Compelling. . . . Osondu's direct and humorous insights and poetic descriptions create a captivating portrait of time and place. . . . Whereas the stories set in Nigeria have a fablesque quality, the American-set tales are poignant studies of the immigrant experience." - Publishers Weekly
"His characters may dream about America, but E. C. Osondu's bracing portrayal of life in Africa is the heart of this debut story collection." - New York Times
"Osondu's writing is refreshingly old-fashioned; he writes with the restraint and poise of a seasoned writer. . . .The language is distilled, elegant, and restrained. There are no attempts to impress the reader with postmodern techniques, yet he succeeds in reinvigorating the short story's capacity to both enlighten and entertain." - The Times Literary Supplement
"There is room here for every style of storytelling, from folktale to crime tale to satire, to the very somber and sad--and just when you think the writer has surely exhausted his bag of uproariously funny observations of street life in Lagos, or of immigrant experience in America, he unpacks more. . . . Osondu's prose style, with its repetitions and run-ons, is that of the raconteur. It is direct and unmannered, it is inventive and humorous, but above all it is compelling." - The Guardian
"For all its grimness, Voice of America shines with Osondu's compassion for his unmoored creations. . . .Osondu's rooftops do not make easy viewing, but he paints them with such skill that they become compelling. . . .In Voice of America, Osondu succeeds in creating a vivid and fully imagined world that is uniquely his own. It is a wonderful achievement." - The Observer