Reading with... Uchenna Awoke

Uchenna Awoke is a writer from Nsukka, Nigeria. His short stories have appeared in Transition, Elsewhere, Trestle Ties, Oyster River Pages, Evergreen, Arkansas International, and other publications. He has received fellowships from MacDowell and the Vermont Studio Center. He is an Artist Protection Fund Fellow and the inaugural Arkansas International Writer-at-Risk Residency Fellow, and is currently living in Fayetteville. The Liquid Eye of a Moon (Catapult, June 25, 2024) is his debut novel, a Nigerian Catcher in the Rye that breaks the silence about a hidden and dangerous caste system.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

I am thinking of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye--funny; NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names--bewitching prose; I am thinking of all coming-of-age stories that explore the themes of human tabooing and exploitative beliefs.

On your nightstand now:

Chigozie Obioma, An Orchestra of Minorities; Percival Everett, Telephone; Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad; Akwaeke Emezi, Freshwater; V.S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas; Abuchi Modilim, The Brigadiers of a Mad Tribe; Uwem Akpan, Say You're One of Them; Lesley Nneka Arimah, What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky; Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Cyprian Ekwensi's An African Night's Entertainment evokes the memory of my grandmother's tales by moonlight and how we grandchildren sat and gazed at the curl of her mouth with rapt attention, a story of deep tragedy and redemption.

Your top five authors:

Chinua Achebe
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Robert Lopez
Helon Habila
A. Igoni Barrett

Book you've faked reading:

My friend asked if I'd read To Kill a Mockingbird, and I knew I had to say yes. It's such a famous book to not have read it seemed embarrassing. Retrospectively, to be called out on that would have been the real definition of embarrassment.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. I was made to wait until I was in the U.S. to read this gorgeous book. It made me count my losses as an African traveling. I wish books like that would reach readers from my part of the world.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Every Pacesetters novel (Pacesetters series was a collection of novels by African writers in the '80s and '90s). I read them for their attractive covers enriched with colourful images--albert garish in retrospect--that depicted the characters. A Fresh Start by Helen Ovbiagele easily comes to mind. A literary memorial of the '80s and '90s, now the collector's items, Pacesetters novels awaken strong feelings of nostalgia.

Book you hid from your parents:

I did not have to hide a book from them. They were the ones who hid the kerosene lamp from me to stop me from writing. You see, my mother could not understand why I had to burn the midnight oil instead of sleeping like my siblings. She thought it was a waste of kerosene, but more importantly, she believed writing would get me into trouble. Neither of my parents could read what was written in a book.

Book that changed your life:

I'd say Elechi Amadi, The Concubine. I was quite taken by the novel's characterization. I deeply connected with its female protagonist. It was the first time I encountered metaphysics in a story.

Favorite line from a book:

"At that moment she made him vanish, wiped him off her canvas, so that what's left is a smeared surface that holds the false lines, the figure that did not come out right, the erroneous strokes of a marriage, and a world botched beyond repair and not what she ever imagined." --from Abraham Verghese's The Covenant of Water

A great line, metaphorical as it's rhythmic and poetic, and conveys the book's deep emotion.

Five books you'll never part with:

Waiting for an Angel by Helon Habila
Holding Pattern by Jenny Xie
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
The Good People by Robert Lopez
The Ever After of Ashwin Rao by Padma Viswanathan

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Unfortunately, it vanished, leaving me with a memory so fragile. I have been looking for it, this book that resonated so much with me I can still hear it echoing through the years and long to read it repeatedly. Back then I was a teenager living in a rural village in Nigeria, destitute of books. I think I got the novel from someone who barely waited for me to finish it before snatching it back. I can't remember who he was, and I don't even remember the book's title, that tells you how long this was, but I am still luxuriating in the fragments of memory it left behind: a man madly in love with another man's wife (eternal triangle) embarks on a long sea voyage with the couple in his desperation to get closer to the woman. It was utterly captivating.

Powered by: Xtenit