Dream Country

Zusatztext 86591893 Informationen zum Autor Shannon Gibney is an author and university professor. Her novel See No Color, drawn from her life as a transracial adoptee, was hailed by Kirkus as "an exceptionally accomplished debut" and by Publishers Weekly as "an unflinching look at the complexities of racial identity." Her essay "Fear of a Black Mother" appears in the anthology A Good Time for the Truth.  Her sophomore novel, Dream Country, received five starred reviews and earned her a second Minnesota Book Award. She lives with her two Liberian-American children in Minneapolis, Minnesota. www.shannongibney.com and @gibneyshannon Klappentext The heartbreaking story of five generations of young people from a single African-and-American family pursuing an elusive dream of freedom. "Gut wrenching and incredible."- Sabaa Tahir #1 New York Times bestselling author of An Ember in the Ashes "This novel is a remarkable achievement."-Kelly Barnhill, New York Times bestselling author and Newbery medalist "Beautifully epic."-Ibi Zoboi, author American Street and National Book Award finalist Dream Country begins in suburban Minneapolis at the moment when seventeen-year-old Kollie Flomo begins to crack under the strain of his life as a Liberian refugee. He's exhausted by being at once too black and not black enough for his African American peers and worn down by the expectations of his own Liberian family and community. When his frustration finally spills into violence and his parents send him back to Monrovia to reform school, the story shifts. Like Kollie, readers travel back to Liberia, but also back in time, to the early twentieth century and the point of view of Togar Somah, an eighteen-year-old indigenous Liberian on the run from government militias that would force him to work the plantations of the Congo people, descendants of the African American slaves who colonized Liberia almost a century earlier. When Togar's section draws to a shocking close, the novel jumps again, back to America in 1827, to the children of Yasmine Wright, who leave a Virginia plantation with their mother for Liberia, where they're promised freedom and a chance at self-determination by the American Colonization Society. The Wrights begin their section by fleeing the whip and by its close, they are then the ones who wield it. With each new section, the novel uncovers fresh hope and resonating heartbreak, all based on historical fact. In Dream Country, Shannon Gibney spins a riveting tale of the nightmarish spiral of death and exile connecting America and Africa, and of how one determined young dreamer tries to break free and gain control of her destiny.***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected copy proof*** Copyright © 2018 Shannon Gibney For me, the rupture was the story. —Saidiya Hartman Let an ocean divide the white man from the man of color. —Thomas Jefferson Part I: CHAPTER ONE 2008, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota KOLLIE FLOMO WAS  DONE . All he wanted was a moment’s peace and quiet. “Fucking motherfuckers. No fucking culture-menh.” He echoed his mother’s words under his breath as he wiped the spit from the back of his neck. He searched the hallway for the spitter—probably the same person who’d cough shouted, “Jungle nigger.” When he saw no obvious culprit, he gave up, walked into geometry, and found his place beside Abraham. His younger sister, Angel, sat in the back of the room, her textbook already open to the appropriate chapter, her pencil resting on a blank notebook page. Kollie grimaced. It was annoying to be in the same class, but they had a tacit agreement to ignore each other. So far, she was holding up her end of the bargain, scanning the room with a bored look on her face, pretending not to see him. “Ya hello,” he said to Abraham absently. “Good morni...

Product details

• Authors: Shannon Gibney
• Publisher: Dutton Books
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: from age 14
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.09.2018
• EAN: 9780735231672
• ISBN: 978-0-7352-3167-2
• No. of pages: 368
• Dimensions: 145 mm x 217 mm x 31 mm
• Subject: Children's and young people's books