Chinelo Okparanta Poradie kníh

"Disarmingly funny." - The New York Times From the award-winning author of Under the Udala Trees and Happiness, Like Water comes a brilliant, provocative, up-to-the-minute satirical novel about a young white man's education and miseducation in contemporary America. Harry Sylvester Bird grows up in Edward, Pennsylvania, with his parents, Wayne and Chevy, whom he greatly dislikes. They're racist, xenophobic, financially incompetent, and they have quite a few secrets of their own. To Harry, they represent everything wrong with this country. And his small town isn't any better. He witnesses racial profiling, graffitied swastikas, and White Power signs on his walk home from school. He can't wait until he's old enough to leave. When he finally is, he moves straight to New York City, where he feels he can finally live out his true inner self. In the city, he meets and falls in love with Maryam, a young Nigerian woman. But when Maryam begins to pull away, Harry is forced to confront his identity as he never has before--if he can. Brilliant, funny, original, and unflinching, Harry Sylvester Bird is a satire that speaks to all the most pressing tensions and anxieties of our time--and of the history that has shaped us and might continue to do so.

Kniha inšpirovaná nigérijskými ľudovými rozprávkami a vojnou skúma nebezpečenstvá otvoreného vzťahu a voľnej lásky. Hlavná postava Ijeoma dospieva v čase, keď sa jej krajina snaží získať nezávislosť, a vo veku jedenástich rokov zažíva občiansku vojnu. Po presune do bezpečia sa zamiluje do iného vysídleného dieťaťa, pričom obidve dievčatá pochádzajú z rôznych etnických komunít. Ijeoma sa musí naučiť skrývať svoju identitu, čo má svoje následky. Príbeh sa zaoberá konfliktom, kompromisom, láskou a mocou, pričom skúma rodinu, do ktorej sa narodíme, a tú, ktorú si vytvoríme. Autorka sa nebojí rozprávať o paradoxoch lásky, ktorá môže existovať aj v ťažkých časoch. Román sa zaoberá vonkajšími aj vnútornými vojnami, prežitím a osobnou identitou. Okparanta, narodená v Nigérii a presťahovaná do USA ako dieťa, sa vo svojom diele odvážne dotýka tém, ktoré sú pre svet dôležité. Jej debut je považovaný za jeden z najlepších afrických románov roku 2015.

In this debut collection, Chinelo Okparanta introduces us to families burdened equally by the past and the future. Here, we meet a childless couple with very different desires; a college professor comforting a troubled student; a mother seeking refuge from an abusive husband; an embittered spinster recalling the loss of a dear childhood friend; and a young woman waiting to join her lover abroad. High expectations - whether of success in Nigeria, or the dream of opportunity and accomplishment in America - consume them...In language that is both raw and elegant, 'Happiness, Like Water' heralds the arrival of a fearless and sensitive literary voice.