An Oprah's Book Club selection: this "electrifying" book (Washington Post) pays tribute to the wisdom and resilience of children even in the face of the most agonizing circumstances. Uwem Akpan's stunning stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few readers will feel they've ever encountered Africa so immediately. The eight-year-old narrator of "An Ex-Mas Feast" needs only enough money to buy books and pay fees in order to attend school. Even when his twelve-year-old sister takes to the streets to raise these meager funds, his dream can't be granted. Food comes first. His family lives in a street shanty in Nairobi, Kenya, but their way of both loving and taking advantage of each other strikes a universal chord. In the second of his stories published in a New Yorker special fiction issue, Akpan takes us far beyond what we thought we knew about the tribal conflict in Rwanda. The story is told by a young girl, who, with her little brother, witnesses the worst possible scenario between parents. They are asked to do the previously unimaginable in order to protect their children. This singular collection will also take the reader inside Nigeria, Benin, and Ethiopia, revealing in beautiful prose the harsh consequences for children of life in Africa. Akpan's voice is a literary miracle, rendering lives of almost unimaginable deprivation and terror into stories that are nothing short of transcendent. One of the best books of the year: Wall Street Journal, People, Bloomberg News, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post Book World, and Entertainment Weekly

Baby Ging Ching had been cranky most of the night. She was a little over one year old and usually slept through the night. What could be wrong? As Ng Shee comforted the child in her arms, she felt the new life stirring within her. She didn't mind living in the cramped room behind the Fook Wo Tong store, but it was difficult to keep the little girl quiet. She stared out of the window into the dimness of the pre-dawn, gently rocking the baby in her arms. Another movement rocked her whole body. Then a chunk of the plaster ceiling fell just behind her.The loud sound woke Hoo Chun, "Can't you keep that baby under control?" he yelled from his makeshift bed.

Ng Shee was confused, "It wasn't the baby!" she said just as the building began to tremble even harder.

In one jump Hoo Chun reached the window, "It's an earthquake. We must leave." Grabbing the bag with important papers, he started for the door in his night clothes. "Come, wife! Bring the child."

Ava Hart thought she lived a normal life working the night shift as a labor and delivery doctor, but she discovers that her life is anything but normal. As a result of a traumatic childhood, Ava's psyche has been split, creating alternate personalities that are ruining her life. In order to gain control over her life, Ava has to dig deep into her memories to discover what happened to her as a child. What will she learn, and can she face the truth without losing herself completely?

Fleeing from justice across the ancient dust-oceans of Mars, Brant had no way of knowing that he was running toward the most fantastic adventure any man had ever lived!

Red Morgan, Po Hillen, and the gang are reaching the end of their school days. The now infamous class of 3C is about to be released on an unsuspecting world. They may be older, but their exploits continue to be as crazy as ever in the 1960s and 1970s. In this third book in the series, Anto Falsoni continues to act as the bookie for the many schemes the gang dreams up-and somehow always comes out on the winning side. After interviews during the school year, most of the gang is recruited to complete a three-month course in Dublin with a company intending to open a factory in Newry. Living together in the big city leads to many hilarious situations both at work and at home. Their adventures, if anything, rival their school days. It was just a short time ago when the boys would only talk about football; now the conversation has turned to plans of purchasing engagement rings. Even at this stage of their lives, the banter and teasing never stops as they move through life at a breathtaking pace that embraced chaos with what appeared to be a natural ethos.

Manas Roy Chowdhuri was an unknown writer who was never exposed as one. Even so, he had a dream to publish a collection of stories dealing with subject matters very commonly visible in our society. The reader may experience all these stories in their daily lives, occurring all around them.

As always, society is dynamic and constantly changing. These twelve stories reflect our society from many different angles. This author was hopeful that acculturation and modernization might ultimately have a positive influence on our society.

A bold and beautiful compilation of short stories, unsent letters, and confessions, Sand Nigga is Bula Barua's much-anticipated first published work. Bula's heartfelt writing is captivating, humorous, frank, subtle, and courageous. The book's title story is a sharply poignant tale, which addresses imposed racism by older generations upon their unwilling and younger counterparts. 'Dear Auntie X - You can choose to be racist against Africans and Muslims, if you'd like. That is your prerogative. I still love you. However, when I was 15 years old and I received that racist note wedged in my locker, I chose to take my focus off the color of a man's skin, and instead focus on the content of his character. I chose to believe in the dreams of Martin Luther King Jr. and live by the great words of our own Mahatma Gandhi.' Bula's finely tuned ear for combining irony and humor with compassion is very telling. With each story, she creates believable and honest experiences in ordinary situations, which become extraordinary. The range of her talent and imagination is broad and yet focused. She has the unique ability to artistically create the worlds of the immigrant and the native, the man and the woman, the priest and the sermon, and the trillion-dollar corporations who seemingly rule the world. Sand Nigga is an art piece, which symbolizes the loves, losses, and many triumphs of the human spirit.