Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Waiting on Wednesday - All Our Names; Dinaw Mengestu ~ Knopf


Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine.  Bloggers spotlight upcoming releases that they are eagerly anticipating! Want to participate? Post your own WOW entry on your blog, and leave your link at Breaking the Spine.This weeks pick is something from an author I've enjoyed in the past.

Knopf - March - 2014

From Dinaw Mengestu, a recipient of the National Book Foundation's 5 under 35 Award, the New Yorker's 20 under 40 Award, and a 2012 MacArthur Foundation genius grant, comes a novel about exile, about the loneliness and fragmentation of lives that straddle countries and histories.

All Our Names is the story of a young man who comes of age during an African revolution, drawn from the hushed halls of his university into the intensifying clamor of the streets outside. But as the line between idealism and violence becomes increasingly blurred, and the path of revolution leads to almost certain destruction, he leaves behind his country and friends for America. There, pretending to be an exchange student, he falls in love with a social worker and settles into the routines of small-town life. Yet this idyll is inescapably darkened by the secrets of his past: the acts he committed and the work he left unfinished. Most of all, he is haunted by the charismatic leader who first guided him to revolution and then sacrificed everything to ensure his freedom.

Subtle, intelligent, and quietly devastating, All Our Names is a novel about identity, about the names we are given and the names we earn. The emotional power of Mengestu's work is indelible.


Books by this author that I LOVED





 
 
 

10 comments:

  1. This sounds pretty interesting. Thanks for sharing :)

    Happy Wednesday!

    http://www.itchingforbooks.com/2013/10/waiting-on-wednesday-68-oblivion.html

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  2. Wow. I can't get over how successful the author has been. The book sounds tough.

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  3. Good pick, Diane. I still haven't read How To Read The Air, but this looks like it ill be really good as well.

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  4. What an accomplished author...and what an interesting synopsis. I'm going to have to check this one out.

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  5. Haven't read anything by this author...yet. This book sounds great.

    My WoW: http://www.bookclublibrarian.com/2013/10/waiting-on-wednesday-bridget-jones-is.html

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  6. I have a feeling that might be too smart for me.

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  7. This sounds sooo good! I haven't read anything by this author before but I really must. Thanks for bringing this book to my attention, Diane!

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  8. This book sounds very interesting. Dinaw Mengestu is an author I have yet to read but one who is on my list of "must" read authors. Thanks for highlighting this one, Diane!

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  9. Diane, I have not read anything by this author but her work sounds excellent. I'll keep these books in mind now.

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