ANCESTOR STONES STARBOOK (Random House, $9.40), by Ben Okri
The basic premise of the novel is a simple one: boy meets girl, tries to find ways to woo her, fights off a rival and travels with her into eternity. But this most simple of plots belies the extraordinary messages and hidden meanings waiting to be extracted from Okri's text...a profound philosophical meditation upon the transience of life and the desperate need that human beings have to achieve immortality by creating great masterpieces....this book pushes the experience of reading far beyond any usual boundaries....profoundly passionate, moving and intense. - Scotland on Sunday
I DO NOT COME TO YOU BY CHANCE (Hyperion, $6.40), by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
"In this highly entertaining novel about Nigerian Internet scammers, Kingsley Ibe is an engineering school graduate who can't find a job and still lives at home with his family. After his girlfriend rejects him and his father dies, Kingsley is taken on by his Uncle Boniface (aka Cash Daddy), who is in the business of Internet scams, otherwise known as 419s. Soon, Kingsley is writing e-mail solicitations to the gullible of cyberspace, and any qualms he may have had about ripping off innocent people evaporate as he steps into the good life with a big new house, a Lexus and a new love interest (who doesn't know how Kingsley earns his money). Meanwhile, Cash Daddy develops political ambitions and gains some ruthless enemies bent on crushing him. As the plots converge, Kingsley must decide whether to sell his soul to build a 419 kingdom...Kingsley's engaging voice and the story's vividly rendered setting prove that while crime may not pay, writing about it as infectiously as Nwaubani does certainly pays off for the reader. - Publisher’s Weekly
CHANGES: A LOVE STORY (The Feminist Press at CUNY, $12.76), by Ama Ata Aidoo
Despite its African setting, Changes mirrors universal feminist conflicts and concerns. Longtime friends and professional women Esi and Opokuya, who have been dealing differently with family issues, make attempts to juggle their many obligations to their husbands, their children, and their careers. Nevertheless, their sexist husbands, who are impervious to the feminist thinking of their wives, remain unsympathetic. Esi finally makes a statement by choosing divorce, career, and a polygamous remarriage--which ultimately becomes an exchange of one set of challenges for another. Prize-winning Ghanaian-born author Aidoo takes a satirical look at modern women and points out similarities in their lives--whether in Africa or anywhere else. - Library Journal
IMAGINE THIS (SW Books, $27.79), by Sade Adeniran
Lola Ogunwole, the heroine of Imagine This, tells in letters her story of growing up in Nigeria after being wrenched from her foster home in Kent. One can see why mainstream publishers had doubts about the epistolary form: episodes in the novel are summarised rather than dramatised, and do not propel the narrative. What animate the book instead are Lola's feisty voice and her authentic evocation of her surroundings. From a quiet suburb, she travels to live with hostile relatives in a village lacking both water and electricity. When she is unjustly accused of a crime, a witch doctor determines her guilt; when she sees the ghost of her grandmother, she must eat the eyes of a sacrificed goat. She suffers cruelty, bereavement and disappointed hopes. She writes of "the straw that made my house of cards come tumbling down", adding that, "the bubble burst, the floodgates opened". The idiosyncratic phrasing contributes to the appeal of Adeniran's memorable heroine. - The Guardian
