SAY YOU'RE ONE OF THEM

This abridgment includes three stories from Nigerian writer Uwem Akpan’s collection. The title story, “Say You’re One of Them,” recounts horrifying days in the Rwandan Hutu-Tutsi conflict, narrated in the first person by a young girl. Robin Miles adopts a lovely French-African accent, and if she allows Akpan’s beautiful turns of phrase to shine, the underlying tension and fear are also never far from the surface. Miles also narrates “What Language Is That?” This story is partially unaccented, a choice that accentuates the second-person point of view. “An Ex-Mas Feast” follows the sometimes-humorous, sometimes-bleak fortunes of a street family in Nairobi. Dion Graham, in Kenyan-accented English, successfully embodies the family’s mother and father, teenaged daughter, and young son. Overall, not an easy listen, but a worthwhile one. J.M.D. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2009]