This novel garnered terrific reviews and was selected for at least one prestigious prize (the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35”). I had high hopes. However, I have to agree with a comment made earlier on this site – the novel reads more like practice at writing a novel than a novel itself...
On certain summer evenings, the elders would point out identifying features among the stars: the tip of a trunk, or the triangular ends of an ear spread out in preparation for a charge – the same shape as the continent of Africa. They would tell us the story of one of these hallowed forebears loo...