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A review by balletbookworm
In the United States of Africa by Abdourahman A. Waberi
4.0
Very interesting speculative/alternate history novel where countries of the African continent have been united into one federally-run superpower. This flips the narrative and puts Europe, the US, Australia, etc. into the place of the developing world (I learned from a fellow bookseller who spent a year working with an orphanage in Djibouti, where the author was born/grew up, that the country is more closely linked to France i.e. only French families can adopt children from Djibouti, which makes sense with the French-oriented plot of the novel).
The ideas and world created by Waberi was very intriguing with a lot of moving parts and I was disappointed that the novel was so slim (only about 120 pages in the US translation). I would have loved more time to explore all the parts of the world rather than intermittently follow the main character. I think the narrative thread of the book is hard to follow, too, due to the author's choice to use a 2nd person narration - the "I" seems to be the author and the "you" is the young woman Maya/Malaika - and it jumps around quite a bit. I think a story collection set in this world by Waberi would be phenomenal.
The ideas and world created by Waberi was very intriguing with a lot of moving parts and I was disappointed that the novel was so slim (only about 120 pages in the US translation). I would have loved more time to explore all the parts of the world rather than intermittently follow the main character. I think the narrative thread of the book is hard to follow, too, due to the author's choice to use a 2nd person narration - the "I" seems to be the author and the "you" is the young woman Maya/Malaika - and it jumps around quite a bit. I think a story collection set in this world by Waberi would be phenomenal.