Award-winning Nigerian author to release a book detailing Chibok tragedy
Recently nominated as the chair of judges for the Etisalat Prize for Literature, Helon Habila announced his book documenting the Chibok tragedy will be out by November:
Titled, "The Chibok Girls: The Boko Haram Kidnappings and Islamist Militancy in Nigeria" the blurb of the book reads:
"On April 15, 2014, 267 girls from the Chibok Secondary School in northern Nigeria were kidnapped by Boko Haram, the world’s deadliest terrorist group. Most were never heard from again. Nigerian novelist Helon Habila tracks down some of the escaped girls and their families to hear their stories and to offer the most complete and intimate account yet of this horrible tragedy that stunned the world.
Through their personal stories, Habila offers readers a better understanding of the religious wars that have ravaged his country, of which Boko Haram is just another phase in an endless battle between Christians and Muslims in northern Nigeria."
This is one of the most charming and amazing story you will read this year —and that's just from a 2 sentence summary.
Prepare yourself guys and let's hold our chill till the book is released in November.
Helon Habila was born in Nigeria and is the author of three novels, Oil on Water, Measuring Time, and Waiting for an Angel. His fiction, poems and short stories have won many honors and awards, including the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Novel (Africa Section), the Virginia Library Foundation’s Fiction Award, and the Windham-Campbell Prize.
He worked in Lagos as a journalist before moving to England in 2002. He co-edited the British Council’s anthology, New Writing 14 and edited The Granta Book of the African Short Story in 2011.
He is currently an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at George Mason University and lives in Virginia with his wife and three children.