Allah Is Not Obliged, 2007, Ahmadou Kourouma ****

Allah Is Not Obliged (to be fair about all the things he does here on earth) is a novel that I surprisingly enjoyed. Keeping in mind it is a translation, coupled with the fact that I couldn't bring myself to finish reading the author's other book "Waiting for the Wild Beast to Vote". That said, let me also confess that the beginning of the book was somewhat tedious, the narrator's style was annoying but I gradually got use to him, a ten year old orphan turned child soldier.

Birahima the orphan, lost his mother and went in search of his aunt who lives in a war ravaged Liberia, along with a family friend turned "Sorcerer". As expected, during their journey they ran into various guerrilla fighters and had to join them to survive, or else die.

In my opinion this book sort of cast light on the unrestrained use of child soldiers in the civil war that caused extensive damage to the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone. The only difference being that it is disturbingly narrated through the voice of a child in a "matter of fact" way.

I have as well read about the

Cutting for Stone, 2009, Abraham Verghese *****

This novel grasp my attention from the very beginning to the end. A young nun leaving her Indian hometown to serve in Africa ended up in Ethiopia with a Surgeon she met in the ship, whose life she saved.

They got involved, she became pregnant and died during labour after giving birth to identical twin brothers, Marion and Shiva.

Thomas, the surgeon, fled leaving behind his identical twins. Hema and Ghosh, Thomas' colleague and friend buried Mary, raised Marion and Shiva with so much love as if they were theirs, of course telling them the truth about their biological parents.

The twin brothers grew up in Ethiopia of the sixties, seventies and eighties, in a missionary hospital where they were born, where their parents met and worked and where their mother is buried. Their non biologic parents are doctors too and work in that same hospital.

You see, the writer Abraham Verghese, who is also a doctor has set a perfect scenario to narrate his story. His medical narrative is intense, the cutting and stitching of the human body is in detail. Do not miss this out, Marion the twin brother is the main narrator and guess what?

The Famished Road, 1991, Ben Okri **

Ben Okri is just so talented, I admire the way he manages to put into writings his imaginations.In 1991 he won the Booker Prize for Fiction for this novel, he also won for this book the Italian Premio Grinzane Cavour.

You just can't imagine or read anything excellently written as this book. Ben Okri is just full of imaginations.

This is a fantasy literature. It is a narrative of the spirit world.

I did not enjoy this book at all, I found it difficult to deep through, I almost abandoned but I made it through. I was so exhausted after reading  it that I quit reading for 2 months (literally). This is not made for me.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend you to give it a try, to have a bit of the great talent of Ben Okri.