Verdict: carrot
All Our Names, his elegiac and beautifully written new novel, moves back and forth between two narratives, both based in the 1970s: one set in Uganda, at a time when colonialism has given way to a new age of dictatorial regimes across Africa; the other set in a snowy semi-rural town in Midwest America.
The African chapters are narrated by a young (unnamed) Ethiopian eager for reinvention, who leaves his village and crosses the border into Uganda. He hangs out at the university campus and makes friends with Isaac, who is from the slums of Uganda’s capital, Kampala. The narrator is bookish; Isaac is a would-be revolutionary. “This is Africa,” Isaac says. “There’s only one thing to study … Politics. That’s all we have here.”
Book Details
- All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu
EAN: 9780385349987
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