Abani
2006 Shortlist

GraceLand

ABOUT
THE BOOK

Elvis, a teenage Elvis impersonator, is hoping to make his way out of the ghetto. Broke, beset by floods and beatings by his alcoholic father, and with no job opportunities in sight, he is tempted by a life of crime. Thus begins his odyssey into the dangerous underworld of Lagos. Ultimately, young Elvis, drenched in reggae and jazz, and besotted with American film heroes and images, must find his way to a GraceLand of his own.

Nuanced, lyrical, and pitch perfect, Graceland is a remarkable story of a son and his father, and an examination of postcolonial Nigeria where the trappings of American culture reign supreme. Chris Abani’s fiction and poetry have been widely anthologized. Graceland is his first novel.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Chris
Abani

Chris Abani is a novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter and playwright. Born in Nigeria to an Igbo father and English mother, he grew up in Afikpo, Nigeria, received a BA in English from Imo State University, Nigeria, an MA in English, Gender and Culture from Birkbeck College, University of London and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. He has resided in the United States since 2001.

He is the recipient of the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a PEN Beyond the Margins Award, the PEN Hemingway Book Prize and a Guggenheim Award.

Chris Abani is a novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter and playwright. Born in Nigeria to an Igbo father and English mother, he grew up in Afikpo, Nigeria, received a BA in English from Imo State University, Nigeria, an MA in English, Gender and Culture from Birkbeck College, University of London and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. He has resided in the United States since 2001.

He is the recipient of the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a PEN Beyond the Margins Award, the PEN Hemingway Book Prize and a Guggenheim Award.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
26/01/2005
Country
Nigeria
Original Language
English
Author
Publisher
Picador

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