Chris Abani – författare

"The masterful wedding of the narrative and the lyric in these poems (whose subject is the maturation of a sensibility, the coming-of-age of a young Englishwoman—the power of her ties to family, husband and her 'adopted' country, Nigeria—as well as the illumination of her own soul and that of the narrator's) fills the reader with both sorrow and wonder. It is an instructive tale for our age—its vision of the individual will and imagination resisting the madness of politics and the destruction of war is singular and profound."—Carol Muske-Dukes

An anthology of noir stories set in the tumultuous metropolis, Lagos. Edited by Chris Abani, this collection brings together brand new stories from some of Nigeria’s best loved writers. From the introduction by Chris Abani:The thirteen stories that comprise this volume stretch the boundaries of "noir" fiction, but each one of them fully captures the essence of noir, the unsettled darkness that continues to lurk in the city's streets, alleys, and waterways...Together, these stories create an unchartered path through the center of Lagos and out to its peripheries, revealing so much more truth at the heart of this tremendous city than any guidebook, TV show, film, or book you are likely to find.

Graceland är Chris Abanis genombrottsroman. En häpnadsväckande berättelse om 16-årige Elvis Oke som lever med sin alkoholiserade far i ett slumområde i jättestaden Lagos, Nigeria. Elvis drömmer om ett liv i frihet, utanför slummen och bortom faderns kontroll. Han försöker försörja sig som Elvisimitatör, men det går inte så bra. Pank, i våldsam konflikt med sin far och utan något arbete i sikte frestas han att ge sig in på en brottslig karriär. Så börjar hans irrfärder i Lagos undre värld. Vägledd av sin vän Redemption och åtföljd av en samling oroliga själar som Tiggarkungen, den sårbara tonårsflickan Efua, trollkarlen Jagua Rigogo, barnsoldaten Innocent och styvmodern Comfort är Elvis tvungen att söka sig en egen väg till sitt eget Graceland. Abani har skapat en märklig berättelse med exakt tonträff om en son och hans far. Det är en på samma gång nyanserad och lyrisk granskning av det nutida Nigeria som slits mellan traditionella normer och den amerikanska populärkulturens lockande symboler.

There Are No Names for Red is a collaborative work featuring the poetry of Chris Abani and the paintings of Percival Everett.

"A fascinating meditation on identity that explores the novelist's own mixed heritage and mixed feelings....A true citizen of the world....With great insight and compassion, Abani reveals that behind his-and every-face are unseen scars." -San Francisco ChronicleIn The Face: Cartography of the Void, acclaimed Nigerian-born author and poet Chris Abani has given us a profound and gorgeously wrought short memoir that navigates the stories written upon his own face. Beginning with his early childhood immersed in the Igbo culture of West Africa, Abani unfurls a lushly poetic, insightful, and funny narrative that investigates the roles that race, culture, and language play in fashioning our sense of self. As Abani so lovingly puts it, he contemplates "all the people who have touched my face, slapped it, punched it, kissed it, washed it, shaved it. All of that human contact must leave some trace, some of the need and anger that motivated that touch. This face is softened by it all. Made supple by all the wonder it has beheld, all the kindness, all the generosity of life." The Face: Cartography of the Void is a gift to be read, re-read, shared, and treasured, from an author at the height of his artistic powers. Alternately philosophical, funny, personal, political, and poetic, the short memoirs in The Face series offer unique perspectives from some of our favorite writers. Find out more at www.restlessbooks.com/the-face.

Chris Abani's Dog Woman is a mesmerizing, haunting, and sometimes subversive exploration of the personal and cultural politics of disempowerment and power. In these heart rousing and lyrically complex poems, the poet enacts the reconstruction of his feminized selves, and his personae struggle to re-form and transform both themselves and the difficult worlds they inhabit. At turns, earthy, enigmatic, devout, outraged, and compassionate, these elemental women's voices ring true, as they sing siren songs, dirges, and hosannas, and as they navigate into new and unknown territories of human will and endurance. Dog Woman is a daring, trailblazing, and important book; it's a vital addition to the poetry of our times.