And after many days
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15
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An unforgettable debut novel about a boy who goes missing, a family that is torn apart, and a nation on the brink. During the rainy season of 1995, in the bustling town of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, one family's life is disrupted by the sudden disappearance of seventeen-year-old Paul Utu, beloved brother and son. As they grapple with the sudden loss of their darling boy, they embark on a painful and moving journey of immense power which changes their lives forever and shatters the fragile ecosystem of their once ordered family. Ajie, the youngest sibling, is burdened with the guilt of having seen Paul last and convinced that his vanished brother was betrayed long ago. But his search for the truth uncovers hidden family secrets and reawakens old, long forgotten ghosts as rumours of police brutality, oil shortages, and frenzied student protests serve as a backdrop to his pursuit. In a tale that moves seamlessly back and forth through time, Ajie relives a trip to the family's ancestral village where, together, he and his family listen to the myths of how their people settled there, while the villagers argue over the mysterious Company, who found oil on their land and will do anything to guarantee support. As the story builds towards its stunning conclusion, it becomes clear that only once past and present come to a crossroads will Ajie and his family finally find the answers they have been searching for. And After Many Days introduces Ile's spellbinding ability to tightly weave together personal and political loss until, inevitably, the two threads become nearly indistinguishable. It is a masterful story of childhood, of the delicate, complex balance between the powerful and the powerless, and a searing portrait of a community as the old order gives way to the new.
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In Jowhor Ile's And After Many Days, the Utu family lives happily and comfortably in Nigeria in the 90s, until 17 year-old oldest child Paul says he's going out to visit a friend and never returns. He's a good kid, a responsible kid, not the type to have a secret girlfriend or drug habit that would explain his sudden disappearance. In his absence, his lawyer father, school administrator mother, younger brother and younger sister find their more-or-less peaceful existence ripped apart. Things like this aren't supposed to happen to people like them. The story of the family's struggle to deal with the mystery of what happened to Paul is set against the civil unrest of the country as a whole, with student riots and police brutality mentioned in conversation often enough to let a sense of unease percolate in the background. The power doesn't even run regularly, everyone just has to live their lives prepared for there to be no electricity, since that's as likely as not.
The story doesn't progress like a typical missing youngster whodunit. Instead of focusing on the family in a timeline moving forward, Ile touches on the family's painful present while going backwards to show how they used to be, in happier times. I appreciated the accuracy of the way Ile portrayed childhood relationships, including those between the three siblings. The kids get along one second and the next are at each other's throats. They deliberately annoy each other and relish in the squabbles they set off. There's never any doubt that the Utu kids are close and love each other, but Ile doesn't cherry-coat that aspect of siblinghood.
Ultimately, I feel like the book was slightly too short. At only about 250 pages, it doesn't have quite the time to develop the parallel between the Utu family's personal tragedy and the community-wide tragedy of Western corporate interests interfering the dynamics of the Utu's native village that it seems to be going for. It reminds me of the way Chinua Achebe used the Christian missionaries in Things Fall Apart, but without giving himself the extra 50 or 100 pages to flesh it out more fully and achieve Achebe's richness of metaphor. But Ile's prose is lyrical, strong and sure, and this is a debut that promises good things ahead, so I look forward to reading his next.
