Ekong Udousoro is attempting to curate stories about the Biafra War. He winds up landing a fellowship to work alongside an American publisher in Manhattan where he attends meetings and works amongst others reviewing possible future contracts.

New York, My Village seamlessly shifts between Ekong’s life in the present day to accounts of the war from his collection of stories and from his friends and family. It'd be nice to say that there were no similarities to be drawn between past and present but that simply isn't the case. We watch rampant racism happening amongst the well educated colleagues at the publishing house, which is the one place you would expect such a topic to be a non-issue. If racism is happening between members of a higher academic standing, what does that mean for every other place one has to go throughout their daily life.

Between the strong fluent prose and the metaphors woven through the story there is so much to gain from reading this book. Uwem Akpan has managed to write a book that you want to read, even while it's making you uncomfortable, and its a book that stays with you a makes you think, hopefully inspiring the reader to outrage and action to help society evolve past the hateful and wrong attitudes of too many of its members.

I cannot recommend this book enough. There is some potential for this book to go far and make a splash in our literary world and our hearts given enough people pick it up. It will certainly be worth your time.

Thank you to netgalley and publisher for an advance e-copy for my honest review. All opinions expressed here are my genuine reactions to reading this book. ( )