My younger brother, Chaka, is one of my greatest fans. And he would walk around with copies of my book, Urichindere, selling it to anyone who would catch his eye. Not very ineffective - he singlehandedly sold nearly a thousand copies, just walking around Abuja. And, sometimes, he would give his number to the people he sold the book to, and tell them, When you read it, let me know what you think. Many obliged him. This is one of the texts he forwarded to me from one such person - Thank you so much for the book Urichindere. While the early part of his life as a boarder I found amusing coz I had heard such stories, the later part touched me personally, and remembering brought tears to my eyes. You see, my Dad was taken, just like in the book, one evening from our home, framed for one of those things, tried in a kangaroo setup. The fear he might be killed, my mum running around and getting nothing, was real for us. I wonder how he coped in detention. Thank God he came back after a year, but was retired; being brave, tried to hide the pain and move on...but being the eldest i knew. Life changed for us in ways I cannot describe fully here. It is in tough times we know the men...Its true. Extend my regards to your bro. And as if a text like that is not more than enough, URICHINDERE has just won the 2013 Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize for Prose Fiction. Honestly, the only other time something like this happened to me was when a girl I used to know took a poem of mine, rubbed off my name, wrote her own, and entered it in a competition. She was kind enough to tell me it won afterwards. So, you can imagine, I am very grateful to ANA for this Prize, and to everyone who wished me well. It feels good to be patted on the back sometimes. But, I tell you, even if it hadnt happened, I would have shrugged and said to myself, No yawa. Because it was a good story the day it was written. You should get a copy. If you do, and if you honestly connect with something in it, please do me the honour no Literary Prize in the world could ever match, of letting me know I touched your heart. jumia.ng/Urichindere---Paperback-84123.html
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 12:26:09 +0000
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