New York, My Village

by Uwem Akpan

Exuberant storytelling full of wry comedy, dark history, and devastating satire―by the celebrated and original author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Say You’re One of Them . From a suspiciously cheap Hell’s Kitchen walk-up, Nigerian editor and winner of a Toni Morrison Publishing Fellowship Ekong Udousoro is about to begin the opportunity of a lifetime: to learn the ins and outs of the publishing industry from its incandescent epicenter. While his sophisticated colleagues meet him with kindness and hospitality, he is soon exposed to a colder, ruthlessly commercial underbelly―callous agents, greedy landlords, boorish and hostile neighbors, and, beneath a superficial cosmopolitanism, a bedrock of white cultural superiority and racist assumptions about Africa, its peoples, and worst of all, its food. Reckoning, at the same time, with the recent history of the devastating and brutal Biafran War, in which Ekong’s people were a minority of a minority caught up in the mutual slaughter of majority tribes, Ekong’s life in New York becomes a saga of unanticipated strife. The great apartment deal wrangled by his editor turns out to be an illegal sublet crawling with bedbugs. The lights of Times Square slide off the hardened veneer of New Yorkers plowing past the tourists. A collective antagonism toward the “other” consumes Ekong’s daily life. Yet in overcoming misunderstandings with his neighbors, Chinese and Latino and African American, and in bonding with his true allies at work and advocating for healing back home, Ekong proves that there is still hope in sharing our stories. Akpan’s prose melds humor, tenderness, and pain to explore the myriad ways that tribalisms define life everywhere, from the villages of Nigeria to the villages within New York City. New York, My Village is a triumph of storytelling and a testament to the life-sustaining power of community across borders and across boroughs.

Genres: Fiction, Africa, New York, Contemporary, Nigeria, Literary Fiction, Book Club

416 pages, Hardcover

First published November 2, 2021

About the author

Uwem Akpan was born in Ikot Akpan Eda in the Niger Delta in Nigeria. Uwem’s short stories and autobiographical pieces have appeared in the special editions of The New Yorker, the Oprah magazine, Hekima Review, the Nigerian Guardian, America, etc.
His first book, Say You’re One of Them, was published in 2008 by Little, Brown, after a protracted auction. It made the “Best of the Year” list at People magazine, Wall Street Journal, and other places. The New York Times made it the Editor’s Choice, and Entertainment Weekly listed it at # 27 in their Best of the Decade. Say You’re One of Them won the Commonwealth Prize (Africa Region), the Open Book Prize, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The collection of short stories was the 2009 Oprah Book Club selection. A New York Times and Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, it has been translated into 12 languages.
His second book and first novel, New York, My Village, will be published in Nov 2021 by WW Norton. In this immigrant story, Uwem writes about NYC with the same promise and pain we saw in his African cities of Say You’re One of Them. “New York City has always mystified me since I first spent two weeks in the Bronx in 1993,” he says. “It was only when I lived in Manhattan in 2013 that I began to understand the metro system, to visit the different neighborhoods, to enjoy the endless ethnic dishes. It didn’t also take long before I discovered the city’s crazy underbelly.”
Uwem teaches in the University of Florida’s MFA Program.

Reviews

[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.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

In sitting down to review New York, My Village, I couldn’t help but put myself in the shoes of the main character—Ekong Udousoro, a Nigerian editor who is curating a story collection about the Biafra War and lands a publishing fellowship in New York. While there, he attends editorial meetings where the staff reviews manuscripts from would-be authors. And a question arises: should a laudable but flawed book that contributes mightily to goals of diversity be published?

When it comes to Uwen Akpan’s own book—an ambitious, shattering, at times unforgettable, sprawling and uneven novel—I wouldn’t have to think twice. The answer is yes.

The strengths of the book are remarkable. There are several key strands that are explored, but two of the most prominent are the prevalence of racism in an educated publishing house and in New York in general and racist assumptions about Africa. Juxtaposed is a story of Ekong’s Hell’s Kitchen apartment, which is rife with bedbugs and turns his days into agony. It does not take long to recognize that the two stands have something in common: racism and a bed bug invasion are both infestations that need massive effort to stamp out—and even then, they reappear over and over again.

I would have liked the focus of this book to be narrowed to delve deep into this metaphor. Indeed, scenes of duplicitous colleagues, boorish neighbors, a racist priest, and a publishing industry behind the times is a searing condemnation, particularly when combined with Ekong’s personal bug infestation hell.

But Uwem Akpan is more ambitious than that. He weaves in scenes and back-history of the Biafran War, which are haunting and instructive. Thy deserve to see the light of day and provide insights into Nigeria and its heinous Biafran War in ways that the rest of the world needs to understand. As a human being, I applaud the effort. As a literary reader, I sensed the wizard behind the curtain – authorial intrusion – and felt that Uwem Akpan was trying to merge two essential stories into one novel with mixed results.

I wish this author had written two distinct books. I’m glad that he wrote one. It opened my eyes even more into how tribalism is alive and well, even in a massive, cosmopolitan city like New York—and how, at the end of the day, we all need to be one tribe.

[Jenny Ells Chou · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is the rare work of literary fiction that leaves readers wondering if the war against those stealthy little insects known as bed bugs can ever really be won. After finishing Uwem Akpan’s shrewd, heartfelt, and ultimately delightful novel New York, My Village, I turned that question over in my mind for a while before shifting my thoughts to war in general and the scars left behind even if the battles end and a victor is declared. Ekong Udousoro, a Nigerian editor and publisher, receives a fellowship to work alongside an American publisher in Manhattan while he edits a collection of stories about the Biafran War, also known as the Nigerian Civil War. The novel weaves seamlessly between Ekong’s life in the present day to accounts of the war from his collection of stories and from his friends and family. These sections are painful to read but eye-opening about the ramifications of colonialism, especially for those of us who were only vaguely aware that the war even took place. Between his work colleagues, the other renters in his building, and the congregation at a New Jersey church he visits, both micro and macro aggressions abound. The biggest insults are the racist attacks on the Nigerian food he loves, particularly since Ekong finds so much joy in trying all the American and ethnic food to be found around New York. Ekong is a keen observer of everything from New Yorkers to bed bugs, and his observations are often filled with humor. And it’s those bed bugs who journey with him throughout his time in New York, always a step ahead, causing misery that reaches out to touch every part of his life, a small but mighty symbol for the war that his country may never recover from.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unflinching account of an immigrant’s experience coming to NYC that captures all the beauty, chaos, and difficulty that entails. There is also so much humor imparted into the story.

Ekong Udousoro comes to NYC because he is hoping to publish his book about the horrific Biafra War. When he first comes, he is mesmerized by all that NYC has to offer. He loves Starbucks, but is so uncertain of how salted caramel actually tastes. He also realizes his dream apartment may not exactly be that. It is a sublet walk-up apartment in Hell’s Kitchen where he is never really alone because he always has bed bugs to greet him. He learns that African Food is considered to be bad, that African’s themselves will be considered dirty, that a greedy landlord who lies leaves him few options, and he is just learning how to navigate the city.

I big part of the story is about bed bugs. I am itching just writing about this. His apartment is supposed to be sprayed for them, but of course is not. He is bleeding, itching, calling his friends to help, and putting tons of chemicals on himself and spraying the apartment. I think the bugs come to symbolize parts of life, is it ever possible to finally rid himself of these awful and pesky creatures? It captures how little power an immigrant has, how lonely Ekong feels at times, wants to escape his environment and return home, how people treat him as a lesser person, and some people are awful, but may not be possible to ever really rid yourself of them either.

Still, Ekona does not lose his awe of life. He sets out to learn about NYC. He starts to meet all different types of people; Chinese, African-American, and Latino. He starts to make friends and this offers the ability to come together under all sorts of circumstances. He has a joyous Thanksgiving when he decides to cook some of his favorite dishes from Nigeria, along with Traditional American Foods and it is just lovely. So, NYC is a melting pot, yes, but it also has tiny villages all around, just like back in Nigeria. Really, a powerful ode to surviving being an outsider and examining life in NYC. The author does a splendid job making unbearable and cruel situations funny.

I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you have been to New York frequently or are Newly Immigrating to the City, you will understand the book that much more. I really enjoyed listening to it on Audio. 🎧

Thank you NetGalley, Ukem Akpan, and RB Media
Ublishers for a copy of this book.

[Greg Zimmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again, I know you're not supposed to rate a book based on what you want it to be or what the marketing tells you it should be, but I picked this up to read a satire of the publishing industry, and yes, there's little bit of that, and some fun-poking at the publishing industry's lack of diversity, but that's far from the main thrust of the novel. In fact, I'm not sure what this novel actually is about at all, other than the broad idea of challenging your racial preconceptions. Which is of course important. But overall, the book's a bit unfocused. There are bed bugs (a metaphor for microagressions?), some horrific details of the late 1960s Biafran War, some stuff about religion, Starbucks, Nigerian food, and lots more.

Parts I enjoyed - Akpan's is a unique voice - but more often than not I was just wondering when we'd get back to the publishing satire I was thought I was reading. Ah well.

[Heaven Protsman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really struggled with this one, but I know a majority of readers will adore this story. Just wasn't for me.

Ekong gets a visa to come to the US from Nigeria to work in the publishing industry. He struggles with crappy apartments, bed bugs, and racism.

This book is very dialogue heavy and could have been probably 100 pages shorter. I don't know if it was just the style or all the dialogue but unfortunately this piece was lost on me. I encourage you to still give it a chance - a ton of readers loved it and rated it 4-5 stars.

[Bukola Akinyemi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book takes you from Nigeria to New York, blending sharp humor with some really heavy truths about culture, identity, and the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways racism shows up.

I loved how Akpan mixes satire with real emotion—you’re laughing on one page and rethinking life on the next. The characters felt so alive, and the way he captures that “outsider looking in” feeling hit hard.

From being part of a minority tribe during the Nigeria-Biafra war to being a minority in publishing in New York, Ekong Udousoro’s story is about immigration, racism, identity, publishing, and many more themes.

Ekong is a writer who wins the Toni Morrison fellowship, he is about to go to New York for this fellowship but first he needs a visa. His experiences at the American embassy includes having to prove that his tribe really exists.

If you’re into stories that balance heart, humor, and honesty while tackling big themes, definitely check this one out.

[Linden · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A satire about the publishing industry and the racism encountered by a Nigerian man in NYC. He constantly recalls the Biafran War and its effects on his family and friends. The descriptions of it are very graphic.

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sorry Professor Akpan :(

Although I enjoyed this book at the beginning, it became extremely tedious to me. The pacing was strange - long slogs filled with seemingly trivial details followed by jumps and spurts that glazed over important conversations. Racial identity is a major theme of the novel, and sometimes characters would get into arguments over race/racial stereotypes. These conversations felt very important to me, but the pacing did not seem to agree. Characters jumped from friends to fighting to friends again with little internalization on Ekong's part.

I also didn't find the characters/dialogue to be very believable. Everything felt theatrical - people shouting, bursting into tears, waving their arms, breaking into monologue about how this event or that event affected their worldview. I know this book is a satire, but I had difficulty picking up cues as to what was supposed to be funny and what was supposed to be serious. There were many threads weaving throughout the story, and I had trouble keeping track of names and lunch appointments. I couldn't tell what was important - the specific time when a text was received, the history of a soccer team they watch at a bar in one scene, the plot of a book Ekong reads? Everything? Nothing?

After reading New York, My Village and The Secret History (which went on similar tangents), I think I might just be stingy with my words. In my mind, every sentence needs to earn its keep at least two times over: tell us about a character, set the scene, move the plot. Economy of words. But maybe there's something to learn here. Maybe sentences can exist just to expand the world. Maybe some stories are like a GPS, where you are guided through a carefully chosen, highly efficient route. And maybe books like New York, My Village are sprawling road maps. Beautiful to look at, but perhaps a bit overwhelming to navigate alone.

[Leah Rachel von Essen · Rating 4 out of 5]

New York, My Village by Uwem Akpan is a novel about a Nigerian man who comes to New York City to work with a publishing house as he puts the finishing touches on his anthology about the Biafran War. Over the course of a few months, he discovers the pernicious racism and prevailing whiteness in the industry and the wider city.

Through his discussions and reflections with family and new friends, Ekong Udousoro exposes the reader to the brutal stories of the Biafran War, its lasting legacies of trauma and resentment, and its often-narrow coverage outside of Nigeria. Ekong is taken aback by the kinds of prejudice he finds rooted in the US, finding that many of the people he thought would be his friends are not, and that people he feared are the most understanding. He endures empty platitudes around diversity, discovers the grating prejudices and misunderstandings between African and African American people, witnesses skin bleaching and wild cases of internalized racism and colorism.

The novel was strange and wild, and a lot of the twists and character moments were intense. I struggled somewhat with the writing, which relies heavily on expository moments and monologue-packed dialogue. I think the novel could have been shorter (given that the Acknowledgments section is 26 pages long, I am guessing the author has a tendency to be long-winded) and pulled a little tighter, to its own benefit. I thought the character of Caro was portrayed as a bit overly hysterical, and I struggled with some of the protagonist's own choices and the lack of consequences that seemed to ensue—he says that he is a recovering alcoholic and proceeds to relapse with seemingly few obvious consequences.

That said, Ekong's story is a fascinating tragi-comedy about confronting racism, trauma, and the twisting absurdities of American life. I learned a lot about the Biafran War and the complex map of horrors it contained, paired with its seeming invisibility to too much of the West and its legacies of tribalism, trauma, and prejudice. Shortly into the novel, Ekong gets bedbugs, and these small monsters itch at him for the entire novel, like the microaggressions and fear of New York City, small itches that together become unbearable, an infestation that cannot be erased.

Content warnings for racism, xenophobia, racial profiling, sex shaming, misogynoir, Sinophobia, skin bleaching and colorism, bedbugs, rape, racial slurs, homophobia, alcoholism and relapse.

[Jude Rizzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though this book felt longer than it needed to be the educational value made the read well worth it. The horror stories surrounding the Nigerian Civil War and the racism both within and beyond the borders of Nigeria was treated with the brutal honesty necessary for a truthful impact. That said, at times the book has a hopeful message when characters from seemingly disparate cultures struggle to understand one another and try to show empathy and compassion.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ekong Udousoro, stand-in for the author Uwem Akpan, is brought to New York as a consultant on an anthology about the Biafran war in Nigeria. The insights into that conflict provide some of the more illuminating passages of the book, but his experiences as a stranger encountering racism and bedbugs for the first time stand out vividly. There was much to learn, to appreciate here, but there were passages that went on too long and should have been pared back. It was uneven, but I'm glad I read it for the passages that were worthy.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with this book. Its stories of complex and complicated racism in publishing, and in both the US and Nigeria, and of scars that won't heal from long-ago wars, were chilling. A bedbug infestation was a great addition and metaphor. However, most characters were one dimensional set pieces instead of people; they all overreacted in the same ways to everything. It was hard to keep myself interested in the important stuff.

[Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had to skim the last 50 pages because the novel just fell apart. I was pretty invested in the plot in the beginning: diversifying publishing companies, culture shock of New York, and telling the main character’s experience of the Biafran war in Nigeria. However, it felt like the author got caught up in relaying the trauma through so many characters that most of the other plot lines were dropped and never revisited. This book had such potential but fell so flat.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Akpan’s debut novel, following his 2009 short story collection set in multiple African nations, is a tragi-comic tale of a young Nigerian man’s encounters with NYC, particularly the publishing industry and, most memorably, the city’s bedbugs. And of course white supremacy and ignorance in many forms. The audiobook is well-narrated by Elnathan John.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 9 of my Goodreads want to read shelf challenge!

This was solid! I love a good New York story, especially one that examines the horrors of publishing. And trust me, the horrors abounded. As someone living in an apartment in Midtown, the bedbug parts of the story made my skin crawl probably more than the average person haha. The satire was on point here, and made me think at first that this would be fun to recommend to people who enjoyed Yellowface/were looking for more content like it. The insight into the Nigerian Civil War, and how culture follows us across oceans, was amazing and well done.

On the other hand, this felt just a touch too long, and a little unfocused. The book felt like it was trying to be two books at once by juggling the Nigerian Civil War-focused storylines with the New York/publishing ones. At some points, these storylines converged (the most powerful moments on the novel!) but at other points I felt like five things were going on and that my attention was diverted to keep track of them all. I kept wishing for it be a little more synthesized and focused.

All in all, a solid read, an entertaining one, but if you pick it up definitely make sure you carve the time out for it, as it can be heavy with lots of things to keep track of!

[William Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is yet another immigrant-to-America story. I have read too many of these. They’re all fundamentally the same, different in detail. A culture is defined by a community’s shared history but also by its language, food, clothing, music, geography, religion, genealogy. In much of the modern world, skin color is a poor but much-used index to culture. If you move to a different culture, the elements will be different. If you comment thoughtfully on those differences, you have a book. If you have moved from Africa to New York City, the heart of the country’s publishing world, you have a “hit” book.

But there’s not much new in this novel. The writing is adequate and some of the details are interesting. I learned more than I’d care to know about the Nigerian civil war of the 1960s. Comparing the cruelty and atrocities African tribalism to racism in contemporary New York is interesting though not fully plausible. The novel is a palatable way to learn some African history, and it could be informative about racism in America for someone who is not aware, but there’s nothing that would make most readers take note. Tribes are tribal, whether in Nigeria and Biafra or in the classes, races, and neighborhoods of New York. We knew that.

Stylistically, the book is touted as hilarious satire, but I didn’t find it so. The humor struck me as broad, obvious, self-aggrandizing and precious. Humor is hard to write. I think the author was trying to use it here to reveal “Nigerian character,” but it didn’t work for me. A huge number of pages are devoted to descriptions of Nigerian food: its ingredients, how it’s prepared, what it tastes like and means. The numerous scene-separator icons on the pages are a crossed fork and spoon. Yes, food is an important part of ethnicity but its domination of these pages seemed out of proportion. Perhaps the author always wanted to write a cookbook.

The novel is not a ground-breaker or a tentpole of literary fiction but it’s accessible and book-clubbable and would make a helpful read (and discussion) for high school or junior high students in America.

Akpan, Uwem (2022). New York, My Village. New York, W.W. Norton, 406 pp.

[Josephine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m having trouble rating this book. I went back and forth about it a lot as I read. Overall, I enjoyed it, but mixed feelings.

Pros:
- good writing
- I liked the main character’s perspective, fun take on NY
- I learned a lot about the Biafran War
- conversation about racism that felt broad and relevant

Cons:
[some minor spoilers ahead, but doesn’t ruin anything]
- I felt like many of the other characters weren’t so developed and didn’t have great character arcs. Like they had interesting backgrounds or stories, but those never got fully fleshed out. There was never a resolution of a lot of the issues with his family, I would have liked to see more about the thanksgiving ceremony and what happened with that at the end, no resolution with his priest. The author adds layers to Molly toward the end but then doesn’t take it anywhere. Basically, there’s a lot of room for these characters to be layered and developed but it doesn’t really happen. I think there are just a lot of characters and not enough space for them to be really fleshed out.
- a lot a lot of descriptions of bed bugs which personally I did not enjoy reading but I am understanding was a metaphor which is cool. Still I just personally don’t enjoy reading many chapters about bed bugs

Overall, it was a good read, but there’s just a lot going on and maybe would have been better if focused on a smaller cast of characters that were more developed.

[Deepa Nirmal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to say, I was really disappointed with this book, and ultimately did not finish. Perhaps it’s me, who knows? I was completely bowled over by Akpan’s short story collection, “Say you are on of them.” And so I came into this with sky high expectations.

I struggled with the writing style. It’s first person and alternates between relating what happened and sort of stream of consciousness of what the author is experiencing. The subject matter is very grim- racism, office politics, the Biafran war, corruption, violence and cruelty in Nigeria, tribalism and the tyranny of the majority, illegal sublets in New York, bedbugs, and on and on. Now the short stories were no walk in the park either, and it’s not like I can’t handle difficult content. I just felt like Akpan tries to tackle a lot of very big topics and really fails. He did succeed in convincing me that racism towards black people of all kinds is alive and well, even in supposed progressive bastions such as NYC. I’m a non-black POC and I have realized there are definite levels of racism.

I kept hoping the book would get better, but it didn’t and began to feel very repetitive. I skimmed through the entire second half and just quit caring about the protagonist, Ekong. Like I said, I’m bitterly disappointed.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is special. Starting with the author's voice, which I saw described as "arresting," and I couldn't agree more. The exuberant, optimistic voice of an African scholar and writer visiting the US on a publishing fellowship who encounters so much of was NYC offers--stand-offish neighbors, too-good-to-be-true sublets, borough snobbery, racism in the guise of liberalism, genuine welcome and shocking rejection.

It was not an easy read, and I'm not sure I really grasped everything that happened. But wow, was it worth the read, and I will probably read it again to try to understand better.

ETA: I'm intrigued by the various reviews I've read (not here on Goodreads but in the Times and Kirk's, etc.) that criticize the "stilted" dialog and other aspects of the writing. I struggled with some of that when reading as well, but I reserved judgment. Despite the density of the scenes and dialog, which I found hard to fully grasp at times, is it possible the author intended it that way? We're the writing and editing flawed, as some reviewers suggested, or did the author's tone and expression reflect the culture clash Ekong experienced?

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ironically, this tale of a Nigerian’s editorial fellowship in NYC could have used more editing. It was repetitive— perhaps as a form of emphasis?—and at times confusing, as the narrator describes what is happening in his home neighborhood in Nigeria as well as in his visiting “village” of NYC. I kept reading because I liked the voice of the main character Ekong, his brave intention to give voice to the minority tribes who suffered genocide at the hands of the Igbo during the war for Biafran independence, and his emotional process of culture shock (equal parts humor and anger) in trying to live and work with Americans. I doubt I will try any more of this author’s fiction.

[SEKAYI TIGERE · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started out really well for me but then in the end the author was trying to hard to push the minority agenda that the conversations happening were too stiff
I couldn’t relate to someone always having these strained conversations with EVERYONE!!! Even kids and people you just met
It was good to learn about minorities and the war though it didn’t really capture my interest enough to want to know more
I ended up skipping chapters to get to the end

[Madeline "Fisch" Fischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than Say You're One of Them in my opinion

[Favour Emmanuel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book to understand how the war affected the people of Niger Delta, but it felt like a personal rant of the author.

[Laila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such mixed feelings. There were some heavy hitting themes that were explored with a deep humor and sadness, but the characters were so flat, the dialogue super-stilted and the excessive, repetitive detail of what people were wearing or how they sprayed each inch of every possession with bedbug spray was exhausting. This is not a complaint, but a warning that there were SEVERAL scenes that involved brutal rapes during the Biafran War. Very hard to read.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

(My rating? The first part of the book was a definite 4. I don't know if I lost interest midway because I had to put it aside for other readings and work, or if the middle part of the book dragged out too much and was just too confusing, but I didn't enjoy reading that part. I grew frustrated by not being able to follow the plot and the characters, and was totally confused by all the ethnic groups and tribes in Nigeria and the details of the Biafran war, even though I'd been determined to get a better understanding of that war and time. By the end, the book caught my interest again, and I was back to giving it a 4.)

I got the book in a Bethany Beach, MD bookstore. It was free because it was an advanced uncorrected proof, which explains the many typos I found. I was very excited to take the book though, since I love reading about New York City and the publishing world, and I was eager to learn more about Nigeria and the Biafran War.

Complexity --- there was a lot:

The number of tribes and the animosity between them, the animosity between the different religions, the animosity between Africans and African Americans, between African-Americans and white Americans… so many groups, each with their own history in dealing with the other groups….. it was impossible for me to keep it all straight.

Add to that the fact that the author often relays information in a roundabout way. We frequently find out about his actions and thoughts only when he later relays what other characters say to him or how they respond to him.

Despite my frequent confusion and failure to grasp a lot of what happened in this book, I’m delighted to have read it. I had only known the broad outlines of the Biafran War, and though I still couldn’t paint an accurate timeline of it, or even the major causes of it (tribal, religious), I got a sense of what it was like to live through it.

The basic story is that Ekong won a fellowship to a NYC publishing house to edit a book of stories on the Biafran War. He is only going to be in NY for about 6 months, but he has a very difficult time with immigration trying to leave Nigeria, as they say he doesn't plan to return. In NY he goes to the publishing house, where at first it seems everyone is very friendly and happy to work with him. He attends editorial meetings where different books are evaluated - these parts really interested me. He sublets an apartment and meets neighbors who he thought were making fun of him but ended up being his friends. The apartment is lousy with bedbugs. (In reviews I've read of the book, many think the bedbug issue is dealt with in too much detail, but I found it informative and can appreciate why it would have been such a major aspect of his life in America.) There are interactions with some people he had known in Nigeria, though they are not always satisfactory. Elong ends up leaving NY a few days early, as he is overwhelmed by some of the problems (and bedbugs) that he has to deal with there.

Seeing NYC through the eyes of a recent immigrant from Nigeria was a real eye opener for me. The constant struggle, the poverty, the sublet in Hell's Kitchen that was riddled with bedbugs, (wow, the horror of that infestation!), the cheating landlord… What a portrait of NYC. (Shout out to Starbucks in Times Square for providing a safe haven.)

The world of publishing. How good a depiction or how representative is his small publishing house? I wish I had first hand knowledge of that world.

I got a kick out of all the ancestral sayings. There were many that I didn't write down, but some were:

-76 When a woman is overtaken by labor in the market, you cannot blame her for opening her legs. This is what ancestors said. Quite a misunderstanding.
-when you shoot at the black stripes in a zebra you jeopardize the whole zebra, black and white. Metaphor for apartheid in South Africa
-353 who can tell whether the foul is dancing or scratching the earth for food, as our ancestors say
-353 the crab that has just escaped a fishing net should not throw a party until it has finished counting its legs
-375 as the ancestors say, if the skies were that wonderful, why would the hawk be searching for food on earth?

My attempt to keep characters straight:
-protagonist is Ekong (76, named after a family tragedy, Nigerian word for war)
-83 he sublets from Lucci, owner is Canepa (good)
-49 neighbors in NYC are Keith (African-American), Brad (Asian) (and g/f Alejandra) and Jeff
-52 childhood friend who moved to America (Bronx) earlier is Usen, wife Ofonime, daughter Ujai (who adores him and idolizes Africa) and son Igwat
-other Nigerian who moved to New Jersey long ago and has bleached his skin white is Tuesday
-priest in Nigeria is Father Kiobel
-priest in New Jersey is Father Orren (a bad scene in church, where Father Orren is shown to be a hypocrit and racist)
-wife is Cabo
-work companions - boss Molly (good), friend Emily (good), Emily's partner Jack (awful), Jack's friend at work Angela (bad)
-almost everyone is a refuge or outcast in their own way (Molly half Native American, etc)


Typos, example:
-178 typo should be the hawks and the doves - is this the type of thing they hoped to catch in this early version, or more substantial errors?

Random:
-77 his village, Ikot Ituno-Ekanem, woke up one morning and discovered that they had been overrun by tense and angry Biafran soldiers - pandemonium when they started killing people who did not obey them
-84 Tuskegee syphilis experiment
-Shoot at the black stripes in a zebra in the whole jeopardize black and white. Metaphor for apartheid in South Africa
-145 Not trusting police
-Description of going to the Bronx
-HUMOR 155 funny -wife in Nigeria, Suspicious of Bed Bath & Beyond On credit card bill, accusing him of adultery
-156 Some of the damage bedbugs can do to you - and more on 302
-158 Chinua Achebe there was a country. He believed in his bathroom cost, interesting.
-176 Ekong came to New York on a Tony Morrison Fellowship to Andrew and Thompson, Publishing company
-208 Muslim, Catholic - not Jews, though Israel etc involved with Nigeria
-216 what? Priest is being all friendly and tells them they cannot come back??
-217 priest had sent ushers to move them from their seats - Priest was a total jerk
-writing style - Seeing the narrator through other people's reactions, not just with the narrator says directly
-273 Africa vs Am Af. Fight with Keith
-Complexity. The number of tribes, the African vs African American, the African-American vs the white American… so many groups, each with their own history in de
-310 true story references? footnotes
-318 After learning of the heartbreak of Chinua Achebe, the Biafran war envoy, as he futilely pleaded with his mad leader to free our brethren, Italy collapsed in rare national depression.. -and more on Achebe 351 Chinua Achebe writing about Biafran War, still disputing - It gets so confusing - I really loved Achebe's book, yet here it's maligned, wrong side
-They were Catholic…
-Ekong feels he needs to escape the white bubble politics of publishing
-Even their shadows were white
-348 Like Ujai, I had become a child of the diaspora, consumed by the conflation of both American racism and Nigerian tribalism.
-367 "The wars America waged on native Americans were worse than Our Biafran war"
-lots of food and cooking Nigerian dishes throughout book

[Kathy Piselli]

I thought this entire book would turn out just to be a love song to Nigerian food, specifically Annang food, fooled by the little fork and spoon decals that separate the passages (apparently a great deal of soup is involved). But there is much more. For one thing, nearly everything I knew about Biafra turned out to be - let's say, off. That was one conflict that was much too dumbed down in the western press, it seems. And like all wars, it follows its victims all their lives, and their children's lives, and everywhere they live. "What were the chances I would meet such Biafran heartbreak abroad?" wonders the narrator. A great deal of autobiographical detail has gone into this novel, you learn when you read the 25-page long acknowledgements at the end. In fact, an author in the novel is made to rewrite his Biafran account to focus more on characters and less on teaching us about the war - I wondered if the acknowledgements contain all the material Akpan's editor had him remove. And, though we are ignorant, and some retelling is required, where the characters take the lead, the novel really excels. The moments of hilarity are bittersweet, and I do not imagine them to be invented. I did feel uncomfortable with a few places where the narrative seemed strained for the sake of something other than the novel. Why did he have to specify an evil cop is Arab-American? Is that a symbolic dig at something? I also got lost with the characters who bleach themselves until they are white skinned. Does that really fool anybody to the extent that it does for Uncle Hughes? I pictured a man with albinism, not someone I'd mistake for a white man. For the parts about the publishing world, it is sobering to realize how few people control what books you will ever have the chance to read. And for the war parts, the line about wondering where the Igbo learned to torture so well was sad - if you study (or live through) any history at all, you know that knowledge is innate in all of us.

[Kam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book and I started out so. Then it just got clumsy and continued being cartoonish. Yet I gave it more time. I'm amAzed it got good reviews, I feel like it's been given a pass by the critics because he's a foreign writer. I think US writers are held to a higher standard.
Nigerian, new to New York, experiences. Even the way the characters were drawn, like his boss, were just kind of wacko. I guess the descriptions of the publishing business made it sort of worthy.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too early a draft for me to critique... I have a feeling it's going to be touched by a lot of editors between now and when the book drops. Some interesting, and difficult, background about the Nigerian Civil War, which I knew very little about.

[Adrienne Blaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this novel, Ekong travels from Nigeria to New York City for a fellowship at a small publishing house. There he plans to learn about the publishing industry and edit a collection of Biafran war stories, but his journey is marked with outrageous obstacles starting with the American embassy in Lagos, Nigeria. This is where the title of the book first appears, when a white embassy worker says, "And didn't they tell you I deny visas to folks visiting New York, my village?" Of course, Ekong's situation does not improve once he arrives in the United States and encounters racism at his job and beyond.

I want to describe this book as Kafkaesque but that feels too Eurocentric. I haven't read enough African authors to give this book a proper review within its cultural context. And that's part of what this book is calling out: the lack of diversity in the publishing industry and the stories that are bought and sold in the United States.

That being said, Nigerian author Uwem Akpan does more than enough to fill in cultural context for readers. And the book's protagonist, Ekong, approaches the ignorance and hatred around him from every angle imaginable.

I listened to the audiobook, which is read by fellow Nigerian novelist, Elnathan John. This book contains a lot of phrases and folk songs that are great to hear in their original languages, which I believe includes Annang, the native language of both Uwem Akpan and his character, Ekong.

Before publishing New York, My Village, Akpan studied creative writing at the University of Michigan and published a collection of stories called, Say You’re One of Them , with each story set in a different African country. I was particularly interested to see other books about "Niger Delta issues" name-checked by Ekong in some of the final chapters of New York, My Village. I thought I would link to those titles that I was able to find here on Goodreads in this review as a way of amplifying them:

The Poet Lied And Other Poems by Odia Ofeimun

The Last Duty by Isidore Okpewho

Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria by Noo Saro-Wiwa

Song of a Goat by John P. Clark-Bekederemo

Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett

Oil, Politics and Violence: Nigeria's Military Coup Culture (1966-1976) by Max Siollun

Oil on Water by Helon Habila

The Beauty I Have Seen by Tanure Ojaide

Reluctant Rebel by Fola Oyewole

The Famished Road by Ben Okrie

Trigger warnings (I noticed) in this book include: retellings of Biafran civil war violence, retellings of U.S.-based violence, racism, colorism, xenophobia, anti-Blackness, threat of police violence, bed bugs

I voluntarily obtained a digital version of this audiobook free from Netgalley and RB Media in exchange for an honest review.