Top Names in Washington Post’s Top 50 fiction books for 2014

I really should have flagged this Top Fiction Books by the Washington Post in November but I somehow missed out on it. I really just discovered the list when some pals forwarded to me a link of one Ayelet Waldman who was #WhiningWhileWhite that she had failed to be included in the notable books of the New York Times. The list incidentally featured All Our Names by Dinaw Mengistu. One of the links that the story had was the list of The Washington Post’s top 50 books of 2014 and guess what? Some of the names are familiar to you. Dinaw Mengistu, Helen Oyeyemi, and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. Here are the citations given in the Washington Post article;

ALL OUR NAMES

By Dinaw Mengestu (Knopf)

Mengestu, who left his native Ethiopia as a child and now teaches at Georgetown, tells the mournful, mysterious story of an African man who comes to the Midwest on a student visa. He captures beautifully the conflicted emotions of someone who has survived the loss of his family, his country and his identity. — R.C.

BOY, SNOW, BIRD

By Helen Oyeyemi (Riverhead)

In this whimsical reimagining of “Snow White” moved to 1950s Massachusetts, Oyeyemi explores the alchemy of racism and the weird ways in which identity can be transmuted in an instant — from beauty to beast, or vice versa. — R.C.

DUST

By Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Knopf)

“Dust” opens in 2007 with a panicked chase through the streets of Nairobi and moves between the lamentation of a single family and the corruption of national politics swirling around one young man’s death, creating a vortex of grief that draws in generations of deceit and Kenya’s tumultuous modern history. — R.C.

Unfortunately, none of them were able to make the top ten list at the end of the year. Now off to check the top books of the Boston Globe and LA Times…