The defining experience of Chinua Achebe's life was the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran War. For more than forty years Achebe was silent on those terrible years, until he produced this towering reckoning with one of modern Africa's most fateful events. A marriage of history, remembrance, poetry and vivid first-hand observation, There Was a Country is a work of wisdom and compassion from one of the great voices of our age.
Format: CONTRIBUTORS: Chinua AchebeEAN: 9780241959206COUNTRY: United KingdomPAGES: WEIGHT: 258 gHEIGHT: 198 cm
PUBLISHED BY: Penguin Books LtdDATE PUBLISHED: 2013-04-25CITY: GENRE: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs, HISTORY / Africa / West, HISTORY / Modern / 20th CenturyWIDTH: 129 cmSPINE:
Book Themes:
Nigeria, Autobiography: writers, African history, Military history
It has the tense narrative grip of the best fiction. It is also a revelatory entry into the intimate character of the writer's brilliant mind and bold spirit. Achebe has created here a new genre of literature, Engrossing ... an elegy from a master storyteller who has witnessed the undulating fortunes of a nation ... his strongest expressions are his poems, scattered between chapters, offering affecting interludes, Matchless ... what a man; what a life, Part-history, part-memoir, [Achebe's] moving account of the war is laced with anger, but there is also an abiding tone of regret for what Nigeria might have been without conflict and mismanagement, A blend of historical overview, personal memoir and political manifesto ... fascinating
Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. He published novels, short stories, essays, and children's books. His volume of poetry, Christmas in Biafra, was the joint winner of the first Commonwealth Poetry Prize. Of his novels, Arrow of God won the New Statesman-Jock Campbell Award, and Anthills of the Savannah was a finalist for the 1987 Booker Prize. Things Fall Apart, Achebe's masterpiece, has been published in fifty different languages and has sold more than ten million copies. Achebe lectured widely, receiving many honors from around the world. He was the recipient of the Nigerian National Merit Award, Nigeria's highest award for intellectual achievement. In 2007, he won the Man Booker International Prize. He died in March 2013.
The defining experience of Chinua Achebe's life was the Nigerian civil war, also known as the Biafran War. For more than forty years Achebe was silent on those terrible years, until he produced this towering reckoning with one of modern Africa's most fateful events. A marriage of history, remembrance, poetry and vivid first-hand observation, There Was a Country is a work of wisdom and compassion from one of the great voices of our age.
Format: CONTRIBUTORS: Chinua AchebeEAN: 9780241959206COUNTRY: United KingdomPAGES: WEIGHT: 258 gHEIGHT: 198 cm
PUBLISHED BY: Penguin Books LtdDATE PUBLISHED: 2013-04-25CITY: GENRE: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs, HISTORY / Africa / West, HISTORY / Modern / 20th CenturyWIDTH: 129 cmSPINE:
Book Themes:
Nigeria, Autobiography: writers, African history, Military history
Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. He published novels, short stories, essays, and children's books. His volume of poetry, Christmas in Biafra, was the joint winner of the first Commonwealth Poetry Prize. Of his novels, Arrow of God won the New Statesman-Jock Campbell Award, and Anthills of the Savannah was a finalist for the 1987 Booker Prize. Things Fall Apart, Achebe's masterpiece, has been published in fifty different languages and has sold more than ten million copies. Achebe lectured widely, receiving many honors from around the world. He was the recipient of the Nigerian National Merit Award, Nigeria's highest award for intellectual achievement. In 2007, he won the Man Booker International Prize. He died in March 2013.
Vier komplekse verhoudings, bietjie misdaad, baie liefde
Die titel van Elsa Winckler se nuwe roman, ’n Ierse knoop, vat die essensie van die storielyn baie goed vas. Neem vier Ierse broers, voeg daarby vier aantreklike, intelligente vriendinne, en jy het die resep vir ’n stewige romantiese knoop. Volgens tradisie het ’n Ierse knoop (Celtic cross) oneindige lyne wat vervleg sodat die onderskeid vervaag, inderdaad wat gebeur wanneer die O’Connor broers vinnig elkeen sy gunsteling vind onder die vier dames wat hulle voorgenome ontwikkeling in Fynbosbaai teëstaan.
“Ierse stories het selde ’n happy ending.” (p.153) Al die broers deel Liam se fatalistiese siening oor verhoudings, voortspruitend uit die voorbeeld van hulle ouers se huwelik. Dit spreek dus vanself dat daar oorgenoeg konflik gaan wees namate die vier verhoudings sukkel om op dreef te kom. Voeg verder daarby, afdreiging, perlemoenstropery en onopgeloste verdwynings.
Ek het die boek begin lees met die verwagting dat één van die broers ’n volatiele verhouding gaan aanknoop met één van die vriendinne, wat ’n reeks sou impliseer. Die skrywer het egter verras deur vier komplekse verhoudings te skep in een boek. Dit het uiteraard uitdagings gestel met agt hoofkarakters wat om die beurt fokaliseer. ’n Paar foute het ongelukkig deurgeglip, maar aanhangers sal steeds lekker kan lees en tevrede wees met die tradisionele gelukkige einde.
’n Ierse knoop is uitgegee deur Lapa, ’n afdeling van Penguin Random House SA.
I am amazed by this book. It is a murder mystery with suprising twists. It follows a 17 year old Pippa. Pip wants to do her EPQ school project on the Andie Bell case and throughout her project she discovers new leads that might lead her to the killer if he hasnt already been found. There isn't really romance in this book. Though I am rooting for a couple in mind. This book has loss and gain and is a must read. This book was really popular on bookyok a couple of years ago and I regret not reading it earlier. Theres also a show based on this book. Suitable for all ages really.
Debra drops (or is dropped?) into Uruk in Sumer in 2000BC. It is a shock certainly, four thousand years ago is a long time, but noone has any time for ninnies here. In between working in the fields and hand-in-hand with the 6-year-old Leqi, she listens to ancient Sumerian stories about Gilgamesh, the precursors to the bible stories, and the material that has proved to be fundamental to our literary tradition. Given the opportunity to go to school (after all she can write in a funny script already) She persuades the head priest to allow her to take young Leqi with her. The tension lies in the penurious circumstances in Uruk for peasants and the financial demands created by schooling, beautifully crafted between two narrative threads - daily life vs. the literary tradition. In the final moment of the book they slam together in a way that brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't recommend it highly enough.
