Where bones dance : an English girlhood, an African war / Nina Newington.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Newington, Nina, 1958-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Children--Fiction.

Children.

British--Nigeria--Fiction.

British.

Nigeria--History--1960---Fiction.

Nigeria.

Nigeria--History--Civil War, 1967-1970--Fiction.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (318 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Madison : Terrace Books, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this stunning debut novel, a child dissects the darkness at the heart of her British diplomatic family. Living in Nigeria on the brink of civil war, Anna-also known as Jake-becomes blood brothers with Dave, the Korean American daughter of a C.I.A. operative. They do push-ups, collect pornography, and plot lives of unmarried freedom while around them a country disintegrates. Luscious, terrifying, and raw, Nigeria itself becomes a lesson in endurance, suffering, love. Stories are layered upon stories: Anna's grandmother tells stories about life as a white woman on the Gold Coast; the clairvoyant and closeted "Aunt" Elsie gives Anna a story of transformation to hold onto in the coming tumult of adolescence. Yet Where Bones Dance also spirals down to the stories that are not told-sexual abuse, the myth of benign colonialism, the chaos of postcolonial Africa. Sensual and fantastical by turns, this moving, funny, immensely readable book delivers an understanding of the interplay of sexuality, gender, race, and war that is sophisticated beyond the years of its intrepid narrator. Winner, Georges Bugnet Award for Novel, Alberta Literary Awards, Writers Guild of Alberta Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians and the Public Library Association

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Cycle I: Good Snake

Lagos

Lines

Beach

School

Christine

Dave

Red

Daniel

Relations

Moonflower

Mrs. Welt

Sister Alice

Akueke

Blood Brothers

Bone

City of Blood

Leper

Ibeji

Nigger

Trips

Killings

Mamba

Woman

War

Soldiers

Brownies

Fever

Twin

Island

Return

Cycle II: The English Ibeji

Christmas

Trader

Ma

Drunk

Dream

Bats

Marine

Benin

News

Help

Trousers

Mask

House

Microscope

High

Map

Wake

Baby

Dark

Blow Job

Soap

Drowning

Mirrors

Sailor

Cycle III: The Mosquito King

Mother

Eye

Beggar

Facts

Ile Ibenu

Underwater

Bath

Mosquito

Bill

Secret

Belching

Isle of Man

White Man's Grave

God

Home

Magnifying Glass

Aunt Elsie

Fishing

Airplane

Jigsaw

Recipe

Prince

Story

Observer

Hole

Leaving

Ship

Cycle IV: Harvest of Ghosts

Harbor

Pole

Death

Malaria

Man

Spy

Doll

Oil

Under

Fancy Dress

Green

Free

Nothing

The Sea, The Sea.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

9786612270406

9781282270404

1282270400

9780299222635

0299222632

OCLC:

606095013