Beasts of No Nation

This article is about the book. For the film, see Beasts of No Nation (film).
Beasts of No Nation
First edition
AuthorUzodinma Iweala
GenreWar drama
PublisherHarper Perennial
Publication date
2005
Publication placeUnited States

Beasts of No Nation is a 2005 novel by the Nigerian-American author Uzodinma Iweala,[1][2] that takes its title from Fela Kuti's 1989 album of the same name.[3] The book won the 2005 Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction[4] and the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award.[5][6] It was adapted as a movie in 2015.

The novel follows the journey of a young boy, Agu, who is forced to join a group of soldiers in an unnamed West African country.[7] While Agu fears his commander and many of the men around him, his fledgling childhood has been brutally shattered by the war raging through his country, and he is at first conflicted by simultaneous revulsion and fascination with the mechanics of war. Iweala does not shy away from explicit, visceral detail and paints a complex, difficult picture of Agu as a child soldier. The book does not give any direct clue as to which country it takes place in, and it remains undisclosed. The book is notable for its confrontational, immersive first-person narrative.

The theme of child soldiers draws on the author's Harvard thesis. The writer never experienced the events he writes about in his novel unlike other books in the same genre.[8]

  1. ^ Smith, Ali (3 September 2005). "The lost boys". The Observer. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
  2. ^ Baker, Simon (4 December 2005). "A Boy Soldier's Heart of Darkness". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
  3. ^ Geoff Wisner, review of Beasts of No Nation, Indiegogo Café, 14 February 2006.
  4. ^ "Award: The Los Angeles Times Book Awards". Shelf Awareness. 2006-05-02. Retrieved 2022-03-16.
  5. ^ "2005 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Awards Announced". Independent Publisher. Archived from the original on 2021-10-26. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  6. ^ "B&N Finds Great New Writers". Shelf Awareness . 2006-03-02. Archived from the original on December 6, 2023. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  7. ^ Egbedi, Hadassah (16 October 2015). "Exclusive Interview With Uzodinma Iweala, Author, Beasts of No Nation". Ventures Africa.
  8. ^ Cusumano, Katherine. "How 'Beasts Of No Nation' Came To Life". Bustle. Retrieved 2019-03-18.