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Adichie, in TNY Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie , author of Half of a Yellow Sun , Purple Hibiscus and The Thing Around Your Neck , has published a short story in The New Yorker titled Birdsong. Follow this link to read so that we can discuss in the comment box. Also, in January of this year, Uwem Akpan , author of the dystopian short story collection, Say You're One of Them , an Oprah Book Club selection, published another short story in The New Yorker titled Baptizing the Gun. Read this piece and let me know what you think. Follow the link here .

Title: Say You're One of Them Author: Uwem Akpan Genre: Short Stories Publishers: Bookcraft Pages: 258 ISBN: 9789788135548 Year of Publication: 2008 (this edition, 2010) Country: Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, Benin, Ethiopia Many a time a piece of work is acclaimed for the beauty of its words or for the attention to language. Such works go on to become bestsellers. Other times a piece of work is appreciated for the different interpretations that could be ascribed to the book, like Kafka's The Trial. However, Uwem Akpan's work is appreciated for the subject matter it handles. Say You're One of Them , is a collection of three short stories and two novelettes. Though the stories are set in different countries--Kenya, Benin, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Rwanda--a common theme strings them together and that is survival, survival of young children. Written in different narrative styles from the first person (An Ex-mas Feast, Fattening for Gabon, In My Parents Room)...

Last Friday I happen to pass by the Accra Mall, and the Silverbirds store attracted me. The books pulled me and without looking left or right I entered the store. In the store, I headed directly towards the African Fiction section and I was glad to see new books from established writers such as Atukwei Okai (Lorgoligi Logarithms and Oath of the Fontomfrom), Wole Soyinka and many others filling the spaces in the shelves. Whilst searching for nothing in particular I came across two books which I couldn't prevent myself from buying. There are books whose price tag, no matter how absurd they seem, cannot, in no way whatsoever, prevent the book-addict from buying. One such book was Chimamanda's The Thing Around Your Neck, though I think it was more out of pure passion to collect this author's works than the quality of the book, as I have not at that point in time read any synopsis of it. So in my search for nothing I came across Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of Th...