Review request: New Yorker staff writer Alexis Okeowo's debut book A MOONLESS, STARLESS SKY

[Guest Odette Fleming]

 

"Evocative and affecting.... Okeowo's in-depth, perceptive reporting gives a voice to ... extraordinarily courageous--and resilient--women and men."Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
"Remarkable.... Okeowo writes with beauty and grace.... Refreshingly, she does not give in to easy answers.... Clear-eyed, lyrical, observant, and compassionatereportage at its finest."Kirkus (starred review)

 

I’m so excited to introduce you to A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa (Hachette Books; ISBN: 9780316382939; on sale 10/03/17), the debut book by one of America’s most acclaimed journalists and staff writer at the New Yorker, Alexis Okeowo.

 

Time after time, the media inadequately illustrates Africa, publishing an 800-word article or airing a 2-minute clip on the wave of fundamentalism sweeping the continent, and the corruption and desperation intertwined in this epidemic. In this masterful piece of reportage, Okeowo, who spent five years on the ground in Africa, finally gets to the heart of “The Africa Story.” Rejecting the idea that Africa urgently needs to be rescued by the Western world, Okeowo instead highlights a generation of brave, complicated Africans who are taking their destiny in their own hands.

 

In A Moonless, Starless Sky you will meet Bosco and Eunice, a young Ugandan couple whose love flourishes while they’re both kidnapping victims of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA); Biram, a Mauritanian waging an honorable campaign against modern-day slavery; Elder, a Nigerian government clerk who decides to fight back against one of the world’s most notorious and dangerous extremist groups, Boko Haram; and Aisha, a passionate Somalian basketball player whose love of the game usurps the terrorist threats she receives.

 

Okeowo paints a moving portrait of a subtler form of activism—resistance—and highlights the vital struggle ordinary people face all around the world to preserve their way of life. A Moonless, Starless Sky is not only for people wanting to know the truth about modern Africa, its essential reading for anybody who is struggling to push their own country forward and fighting to be heard.

 

The book has already received early praise from a number of bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors (praise sheet attached). We are expecting big things from this young, rising star and would love to give you the opportunity to review her debut work before it comes out in October. If you would like to receive an early reading copy please email me your mailing address: odette.fleming@hbgusa.com

 

The Hachette Books Marketing team