Odafe AtogunReviews

the tone of the writing and how the sentences are put together is really pleasant to read. I didn't find myself emotionally engaged or caring about the characters though.
pretty enjoyable read overall.

The novel has the simplicity and lyricism of a folk tale and yet it managed to convey, so deeply, the numbness and defilement of human relationships among people living in corrupt authoritarian regimes. The bareness of the prose did not prevent me from experiencing this novel as a devastating indictment of state-sponsored violence. I was upset by it.

This was an absolutely thrilling debut novel. Atogun manages to capture so much and his style is bereft from any unnecessary words or details. His magnificent work is full of meaning, emotion, and purpose. This is the type of writing that I like to read and, for a debut author to reach this kind of level, is amazing. This is an author that I will look out for. The ending is a treat too. Definitely worth the read- especially for those interested in world literature.

5 stars.

My latest book was a serendipitous find: it's called Wake Me When I'm Gone and it's by Odafe Atogun who lives in Abuja, Nigeria. What I particularly like about his writing is that his characters are people who are open to change.
Wake Me When I'm Gone is the story of Ese, a woman recently widowed who refuses to comply with traditional customs about remarriage and passing custody of her son to her son to a male relative. It is not just that she does not love the Chief who pressures her into submitting to him, it is also that she wants time to grieve the husband that she married for love, and that she is appalled by the treatment of children caught up in this situation. Many of them are treated more like political rivals than innocent children, and there are credible rumours that male children taken into the care of the Chief are murdered.
So Ese stands up for herself, for her son, and for the orphaned children of the village and invokes the opprobrium of the community. She is a very capable woman and is able to support Noah and herself from her own garden, even though she has lost the fields that supplied vegetables for her market stall. But the chief is obdurate, and he makes things very hard for her. As is so often the case in these situations she has to flee, but she finds a safe haven and is able to build a new life. And while there is no soppy happy ending, Ese becomes a leader in her new community and influences important changes to long-standing traditions that have ceased to be appropriate in the modern world.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/08/06/wake-me-when-im-gone-by-odafe-atogun-bookrev...

3.5 A new author out of Nigeria, this is a simply told tale, almost like a fable, of a musician who is forced to leave his country because his music is turning people away from The President. When in exile he revives a letter that his girlfriend in Lagos has been taken by the government and he returns to his home with the mission of freeing her from the dictatorship. On his arrival he find he has been forgotten, by his neighbors and his friends, his guitars stolen from his house, leaving him with only the instrument he carries.

The difficulties of those in the arts under a dictatorship can definitely be drawn from this story. The power of music to change and reach out to the people. The amnesia and fear that people learn to live under in order to survive. As Taduno tries to find his girlfriend and make the people remember, as well as to find the voice he seems to have lost, he is presented with a moral dilemma. Does he betray all to save her, or does he betray her by not pursuing the terrible opportunity the President presents to him? I took this quote to heart and it captures much of what this book is saying, "When the music is silent, you hear the laughter of the tyrant."

A short book, quick read but with a powerful message.½

Something about this book reminded me of The Gracekeepers. I love this style of writing.