News from home

Atta lives in the U.S., and this powerful collection is about the search for home. In the irreverent title story, a young Nigerian gets a job as a nanny for a New Jersey family; she sneers at their African decor, but what dazzles her is the mall (scented toilet paper!). When Americans ask her where shes from, she ends up saying Africa; they dont know Nigeria. As gentle as it is horrifying, Last Trip is about a courier from Lagos who boards a plane for London with a half-million dollars worth of heroin in her stomach; her commission will help care for her disabled son. In Twilight Trek, illegals are on a modern biblical exodus across the blazing Sahara desert; the wry narrator is desperate (Death I could live with), even as he confronts horrific global prejudice (foreign embassies dont grant Africans like us visas).

Year

2010

Language

English

Publisher

Interlink Books

Editions

4

Pages

293

ISBN

9781566568036

Data source: Wikidata