This review is part of the Literature World Tour.
I'm not ashamed to say it - I was inspired to read Song For Night based on the RobAroundBooks review in June. A rather slim volume for what is a huge topic: child soldiers in Africa.
Suffice to say I don't do the same amount of research as Rob into each book I read, and I know nothing about the Nigeria-Biafran war (I wasn't even born yet), but the phenomenon of child soldiers still exist, so I chose to read it as a contemporary account.
The story revolves around 15 year old rebel soldier My Luck, who is on a search for his platoon after an explosion knocked him out. As he attempts to find his men, he ends up retracing his steps in more ways than one. We find out how he came to become the leader of his platoon and the very personal losses he's suffered going from Son to Soldier.
There are signs in the second half of the book that all isn't as it seems, and as Rob says, things start to get a bit surreal. However, they don't detract from the story one bit.
Song For Night grabs you by the balls throat and doesn't let go until you have witnessed the horrors these children have to live with (and commit) day after day. Chris Abani has written an important book, and he's managed it with an amazing economy of words that means you can read the whole thing, enthralled, during a Glasgow-Edinburgh train journey.
Next in Africa: Cormac Hoy's review of My Father's Daughter
Next stop on the Literature World Tour: Middle East!
