Ishmael Beah’s novel Little Family is the offering of the One Read App for April 2021.
One Read is a mobile application, brought to you by Nigeria’s Sterling Bank and Ouida Books, aimed at promoting writers, publishers and other players in the African book industry to create a community of readers. So far, readers have gotten access to Travellers by Helon Habila, We, The Scarred by Mukoma Wa Ngugi, Not My Time to Die by Yolande Mukagasana, Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah, Prince of Monkeys by Nnamdi Ehirim, Ukamaka Olisakwe’s Ogadinma, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s Dreams and Assorted Nightmares, Odafe Atogun’s Taduno’s Song and Hadiza Isma El-Rufai’s An Abundance of Scorpions.
The selected book for April 2021 is Ishmael Beah’s novel Little Family. Beah is a US-based Sierra Leone-born writer whose memoir A Long Way Gone is a #1 New York Times–bestseller. The new title has the following blurb;
A powerful novel about young people living at the margins of society, struggling to replace the homes they have lost with the one they have created together. Hidden away from a harsh outside world, five young people have improvised a home in an abandoned airplane, a relic of their country’s tumultuous past. Elimane, the bookworm, is as street-smart as he is wise. Clever Khoudiemata maneuvers to keep the younger kids—athletic, pragmatic Ndevui, thoughtful Kpindi, and especially their newest member, Namsa—safe and fed. When Elimane makes himself of service to the shadowy William Handkerchief, it seems as if the little family may be able to keep the world at bay and their household intact. But when Khoudi comes under the spell of the “beautiful people”—the fortunate sons and daughters of the elite—the desire to resume an interrupted coming of age and follow her own destiny proves impossible to resist.A profound and tender portrayal of the connections we forge to survive the fate we’re dealt, Little Family marks the further blossoming of a unique global voice.
Click here to download the One Read App.
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