Beasts of No Nation (Paperback)
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Description
In this stunning debut novel, Agu, a young boy in an unnamed West African nation, is recruited into a unit of guerrilla fighters as civil war engulfs his country. Haunted by his father's own death at the hands of militants, Agu is vulnerable to the dangerous yet paternal nature of his new commander. While the war rages on, Agu becomes increasingly divorced from the life he had known before the conflict started—a life of school friends, church services, and time with his family still intact.
In a powerful, strikingly original voice that vividly captures Agu's youth and confusion, Uzodinma Iweala has produced a harrowing, inventive, and deeply affecting novel.
About the Author
Uzodinma Iweala is the author of Beasts of No Nation, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2007 he was selected as one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists. A graduate of Harvard University and the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, he lives in New York City and Abuja, Nigeria.
Praise for Beasts of No Nation…
“[Beasts of No Nation] is a work of visceral urgency…it heralds the arrival of a major talent.”
-Amitav Ghosh, author of The Glass Palace
“Uzodinma Iweala is a gifted and brave writer.”
-Chris Abani, author of GraceLand
“An astonishing debut.”
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A harrowing account of the intoxication of violence…that offers no easy answers or explanations.”
-Library Journal
“This is an extraordinary book. . . . It’s so vivid [and] powerful.”
-Sunday Telegraph
“A raw, compelling first novel.”
-Literary Review
“A powerful debut.”
-The Times of London
“A brilliant debut. . . . This is a remarkable novel that suggests a dazzling literary future.”
-People (****)
“Remarkable. . . . Iweala never wavers from a gripping, pulsing narrative voice.”
-Entertainment Weekly (A)
“A startling debut…. Iweala’s acute imagining allows him to depict the war as a mesh of bestial pleasures and pain.”
-The New Yorker
“The hypnotic present tense, first-person narration draws the reader deep into the child soldier’s shattered psyche.”
-The Washington Post
“Searing and visceral. . . . Agu’s unblinking innocence gives the story its most powerful and disturbing beauty.”
-San Diego Union-Tribune
“An outstanding first novel. . . . Resonant, beautiful. . . . Iweala’s book will be readily embraced by readers.”
-Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“Uzodinma Iweala is receiving not just hype but praise from reviewers for the frighteningly convincing voice of a preteen soldier.”
-New York Magazine
“Searing. . . . An extraordinary debut novel.”
-Time.com
“Stark, vivid.... Written like a nightmare in progress, this story is a fever dream of voice and consciousness.”
-San Francisco Chronicle
“Devastating...a raw and brutal story about the horrifying effects of cruelty and the incredible power of hope.”
-Atlanta Journal-Constitution