Publishers Weekly
09/06/2021
Akpan’s ambitious debut novel (after the collection Say You’re One of Them) follows a Nigerian writer in New York City as he navigates myriad permutations of racism and prejudice. Ekong Otis Udousoro has a four-month fellowship in 2016 to understudy with a small U.S. publisher and edit an anthology of stories about Nigeria’s civil war of the late 1960s. Ekong, a member of Annang tribe (a “minority of minorities”), has his visa denied twice before finally securing entry with help from his stateside editor-in-chief. The all-white publishing house greets Ekong with friendly overtures, but his diverse neighbors in Hell’s Kitchen offer only icy stares, leading him to take refuge in Times Square and at Starbucks. While fighting for underrepresented authors and against bloodthirsty bedbugs, Ekong learns that first impressions don’t always reveal true character. Throughout, he strives to bear witness to the atrocities and lingering animosities of the Biafran War among compatriots living in the Bronx, in New Jersey, and in his village back home. Akpan writes as much to educate as to entertain, adding lengthy and lucid historical passages with footnotes to source material along with excerpts from the book Ekong is editing. This layered novel tells more than it shows, but it’s well worth listening to. (Nov.)
Bookforum - Elias Rodriques
"The tragicomic portrayal of New York publishing and the Biafran war in Uwem Akpan’s New York, My Village made me laugh and cry."
Louise Erdrich
"A dizzying and fearless tour of New York's street culture, coffee, food, apartment life and publishing world, interleaved with memorials of war crimes and tense depictions of the human cost of trauma. Uwem Akpan has mastered the art of laugh-out-loud satire, but he leaves room for tears."
BookPage - Arlene McKanic
"Akpan, author of the award-winning story collection Say You’re One of Them, allows Ekong’s astonished anger, acerbic humor and, despite every- thing, love of New York and its people to anchor him. Of all the characters in New York, My Village, Ekong knows who he is. We are privileged to get to know him, too."
Bookreporter - Norah Piehl
"Uwem Akpan’s brand of humor and satire draws readers in from the very beginning of his debut novel, New York, My Village. The book is full of colorful and observant portraits of New York City’s neighborhoods, as well as mouthwatering descriptions of food. Anyone who has been involved in the publishing world will find the scenes of pitch meetings and awards dinners especially telling, but they’re not the only ones who will appreciate Akpan’s astute and self-aware novel."
Celeste Ng
"A searing sendup of publishing, racial biases, and humanity's near-infinite capability to look away from the most troubling parts of ourselves, New York, My Village is that rare thing: a funhouse mirror that reflects back the truth. Uwem Akpan's debut novel maps the constantly shifting ground of grappling with prejudice and guilt—and how we might find connections, and compassion, nevertheless."
Father James Martin
"A superb story from a superb writer. The most compelling part of this debut novel of a Nigerian writer's immersion in American culture and the publishing world is the narrator's voice, utterly alive, frighteningly observant, deeply compassionate. Once that captivating voice grabs you, from the very first page, you never want to stop listening."
Newsweek - Juliana Rose Pignataro
"A propulsive and sophisticated contemporary take on the New York City publishing industry follows the immigrant winner of a prestigious fellowship into what he thinks will be the role of a lifetime. What unfolds is anything but, plus a bedbug infestation. This ambitious novel deals profoundly with the fundamental questions about diversity, tribalism and reckoning with history. "
StarTribune - Michael Schaub
"It's been 13 years since Akpan's debut book, the beautiful short story collection Say You're One of Them, and he's only gotten sharper and more self-assured since then. New York, My Village is a wonderful novel, keenly observed and written with true compassion."
Elif Batuman
"I am in awe. I'm still trying to figure out how Uwem Akpan did it. He has transformed the isolating and exhausting intricacies of war trauma into a compulsively readable novel, at once hilarious, utterly harrowing, profoundly optimistic, and horrifically informative. Unforgettable characters, deeply realistic and “relatable” interpersonal conflicts, a contagious love of life, fresh insights into the crazy-making properties of racist ideology: New York, My Village has it all. And it's the great bedbug novel of New York City we have all been waiting for, some of us without knowing it! I adored this book."
Susan Straight
"New York, My Village gives us an intricate braid of the terrors and legacy of war, the inimitable voice of a writer collecting stories of violence and tribalism while negotiating a different tribalism in New York, and the way one man wields the force of love and generosity."
Library Journal
06/01/2021
In this much-anticipated debut novel, Nigerian editor Ekong Udousoro is assembling a collection of stories about the Biafran War that brutally rocked his country when he wins a publishing fellowship to continue his work in New York. He learns plenty, good and bad, about publishing (often heartlessly commercial) and about America's inherent racism. From the author of the Commonwealth Prize and PEN Open Book Award winner Say You're One of Them, an Oprah Winfrey Book Club pick.
Kirkus Reviews
2021-08-18
A Nigerian editor suffers through four months in New York in Akpan's satirical first novel.
Ekong Udousoro, a Nigerian book editor, heads to Manhattan to understudy at a publishing house and edit an anthology of stories by minority writers caught in the crossfire during the Biafran War, a ruthless ethnic conflict that consumed southern Nigeria in the late 1960s and whose legacy still haunts Ekong and other members of his hard-hit tribal minority. After procuring a visa—an infuriating process that provides some of the book’s most affecting scenes—Ekong arrives in New York and quickly falls in love with Times Square, which feels “so global, so democratic, as though all these lights had already boiled and refined every soul down to essential humanity.” Yet he also finds himself living in an illegal sublet in a shabby Hell’s Kitchen apartment that hasn’t been renovated in decades—and he and his neighbors soon find themselves battling not just racial tensions, but an infestation of bedbugs. Meanwhile, Ekong finds himself the only person at his publishing house who isn't White, something that is uncomfortable for him and, tellingly, for his supposedly anti-racist co-workers. (There’s an amazing moment during an editorial meeting when Jack, a high-powered villain on the publicity team, says that Ekong isn’t “conversant” enough about American culture to edit American stories; Ekong replies that Jack is “totally right,” then adds, “But you guys have been editing African fiction, no?”) America and Nigeria serve as mirrors for each other here: Both are places of incredible diversity (Nigeria has at least 250 ethnic groups), yet both are marred by the fact that old conflicts continue to circumscribe nearly every interracial (or intertribal) interaction. Yet, as important as Akpan’s investigations into this subject are, his book struggles at the line and scene levels. For instance, this interaction between Ekong and his neighbor is as defined by its stilted dialogue as it is by its piercing insight into the sometimes-fraught relationship between Black Americans and Black Africans: “ ‘Look, Ekong, let’s forget our disagreement for a moment, so we can really talk,’ he said, clearing his throat. ‘You’re very gracious...thanks,’ I said, straightening up. ‘Keith, talking is good, talking is really good, bro.’ ‘Yes.’ ‘No, I’m sorry for my outburst and attack! I didn’t have to say that about slaves and your ancestors—our ancestors….’ ‘I guess we can’t resolve four-hundred-year-old bad blood by screaming at each other on the streets.’ ‘I know.’ ‘Bro, how was your day?’ ‘So-so.’ ‘Mine, too.’ ”
A rollicking picaresque at times hindered by stilted dialogue and bulky scenes.
