Fiction. In SONG FOR NIGHT, My Luck, a West African boy soldier who has lost his voice, leads us on a terrifying yet beautiful journey through the nightmare landscape of a brutal war in search of his lost platoon. Masterful, haunting, and written in a ghostly yet lyrical voice, this is a remarkable and emphatic story of courage, grace, morality, and triumph. "If you want to get at the molten heart of contemporary fiction, Abani is the starting point"--Dave Eggers. Chris Abani is a Nigerian poet and novelist and the author of The Virgin of Flames, GraceLand, and BECOMING ABIGAIL.
Author City: Riverside, CA USA
Christopher Abani (or Chris Abani) (born December 27,1966) is a Nigerian author. Abani's first novel, Masters of the Board, was about a Neo-Nazi takeover of Nigeria. The book earned one reviewer to praise Abani as "Africa's answer to Frederick Forsyth." The Nigerian government, however, believed the book to be a blueprint for an actual coup, and sent the 18-year-old Abani to prison in 1985. After serving six months in jail, he was released, but he went on to perform in a guerilla theatre group. This action led to his arrest and imprisonment at Kiri Kiri, a notorious prison. He was released again, but after writing his play Song of a Broken Flute he was arrested for a third time, sentenced to death, and sent to the Kalakuta Prison, where he was jailed with other political prisoners and inmates on death row. His father is Igbo, while his mother was English born. He spent some of his prison time in solitary confinement, but was freed in 1991. He lived in exile in London until a friend was murdered there in 1999; he then fled to the United States. He is a Professor at the University of California, Riverside and the recipient of the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the 2001 Prince Claus Awards, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. His books include SANCTIFICUM (Copper Canyon Press, 2010), SONG FOR NIGHT (Akashic Books, 2007), BECOMING ABIGAIL (Akashic Books, 2006), and HANDS WASHING WATER (Copper Canyon Press, 2006).
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