Items related to All Our Names
From Dinaw Mengestu, a recipient of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award, the New Yorker's 20 Under 40 Award, and a 2012 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant, comes a novel about exile, about the loneliness and fragmentation of lives that straddle countries and histories.
All Our Names is the story of a young man who comes of age during an African revolution, drawn from the hushed halls of his university into the intensifying clamour of the streets outside. But as the line between idealism and violence becomes increasingly blurred, and the path of revolution leads to almost certain destruction, he leaves behind his country and friends for America. There, pretending to be an exchange student, he falls in love with a social worker and settles into the routines of small-town life. Yet this idyll is inescapably darkened by the secrets of his past: the acts he committed and the work he left unfinished. Most of all, he is haunted by the charismatic leader who first guided him to revolution and then sacrificed everything to ensure his freedom.
Subtle, intelligent, and quietly devastating, All Our Names is a novel about identity, about the names we are given and the names we earn. The emotional power of Mengestu's work is indelible.
All Our Names is the story of a young man who comes of age during an African revolution, drawn from the hushed halls of his university into the intensifying clamour of the streets outside. But as the line between idealism and violence becomes increasingly blurred, and the path of revolution leads to almost certain destruction, he leaves behind his country and friends for America. There, pretending to be an exchange student, he falls in love with a social worker and settles into the routines of small-town life. Yet this idyll is inescapably darkened by the secrets of his past: the acts he committed and the work he left unfinished. Most of all, he is haunted by the charismatic leader who first guided him to revolution and then sacrificed everything to ensure his freedom.
Subtle, intelligent, and quietly devastating, All Our Names is a novel about identity, about the names we are given and the names we earn. The emotional power of Mengestu's work is indelible.
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About the Author:
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, March 2014: Idealism, disillusionment, justice and love--these are the topics beautifully explored in this novel by the MacArthur “Genius” grantee and author of How to Read the Air. A young African man called Isaac has come to the Midwestern United States, where he embarks on a relationship with Helen, a social worker, who, for all her heart and intelligence, has trouble understanding him. Part illusion, part product of the revolutionary past in his own country, Isaac purposely makes himself unknowable. Who is Isaac (nicknamed “Dickens” by some, for his love of the writer) now? And who was he as a student in Ethiopia? Do names and times even matter? Sometimes lyrical, sometimes plaintive--“He’s the closest thing I have to a past in this country,” Isaac explains to Helen about a friend from home--Mengestu’s novel is about a young man coming to terms with his past and trying to determine his future. But it’s also a searing, universal story of emigration and identity. --Sara Nelson
DINAW MENGESTU is the award-winning author of two novels, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (2008) and How To Read the Air (2010). He is a graduate of Georgetown University and Columbia University's MFA program in fiction and the recipient of a 5 Under 35 Award from the National Book Foundation and a 20 Under 40 Award from The New Yorker. His journalism and fiction have appeared in such publications as Harper's, Granta, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, and the Wall Street Journal. He is a recipient of a 2012 MacArthur Foundation genius grant and currently lives in New York City.
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- PublisherBond Street Books
- Publication date2014
- ISBN 10 0385679777
- ISBN 13 9780385679770
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages272
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All Our Names
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Book Description HARDCOVER. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. First Edition. We're happy to combine shipping to save you some money. We're also always buying collectible book collections. Contact us for details. We're happy to provide pictures of any and all books for you, please just ask! Canadian first edition, first printing. Contains number line 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. Virtually no wear to jacket. Jacket is NOT price clipped. Covers are clean and bright. Edges are sharp. No tears or creases. The book itself is in Near Fine condition. The binding is straight and tight. NO remainder mark. Seller Inventory # sku520011704
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. First Canadian Edition; First Printing. Bruise to d/j at top spine. Light crease to spine. A Good Read ships from Toronto and Niagara Falls, NY - customers outside of North America please allow two to three weeks for delivery. ; 8.98 X 6.46 X 1.42 inches; 272 pages. Seller Inventory # 102930
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Book Description Condition: Fine. Book is in Used-LikeNew condition. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Used items may not include supplementary materials such as CDs or access codes. May show signs of minor shelf wear. 1.23. Seller Inventory # 0385679777-2-2
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. A Good Read ships from Toronto and Niagara Falls, NY - customers outside of North America please allow two to three weeks for delivery. Minor rubbing to edges. ; 8.98 X 6.46 X 1.42 inches; 272 pages. Seller Inventory # 94504
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: As New. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine+. First Edition First Printing. A politcal novel set in the 1970's that is also a love story " between an American woman and an African man". 256 pp . Book has black cloth spine with silver text and black paper covered boards. Unclipped ( CAN $ 27.95) DJ has very slight edge wear around spine ends. Bookseller's Inventory # 154362. Seller Inventory # 004362
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