Title: Beasts of No NationAuthor: Uzodinma Iweala
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 142
Edition: Hardcover
25-year-old Nigerian author Uzodinma was awarded the "John Llewellyn Rhys prize for Literature 2005" for this stunning debut novel about the times of civil war in West Africa. The author vividly portrays the horrid details of the war through the voice of the protagonist, a young african boy named Agu. Born to a bible-reading mother and a father who is a school teacher, Agu is the smartest kid in the class, and dreams of becoming a doctor and an engineer. When the civil war breaks out, Agu's mother and sister were evacuated by the United Nations and he is forced to flee for his life after witnessing his father getting killed in the war. He gets abducted into a group of soldiers where he was offered no choice but to kill or be killed. Desperate to survive, Agu takes on his life as a soldier killing people and raiding villages for food and clothes per the commandant's orders. At times, Agu gets molested by the commandant at night, and he had to remain silent in order to survive. It makes me shudder to think of all the atrocities the commandant and his soldiers commit in the name of war. But, I am glad I picked this book. This story will stay with me for a long time to come. Highly Recommended!!
My Rating: 4/5
