Alien Stories

by E.C. Osondu

Overview

“A vital voice in the short story, telling us new truths with deep humanity."
–George Saunders

Celebrated Nigerian-born writer E.C. Osondu delivers a short-story collection of nimble dexterity and startling originality in his BOA Short Fiction Prize-winning Alien Stories.

These eighteen startling stories, each centered around an encounter with the unexpected, explore what it means to be an alien. With a nod to the dual meaning of alien as both foreigner and extraterrestrial, Osondu turns familiar science-fiction tropes and immigration narratives on their heads, blending one with the other to call forth a whirlwind of otherness. With wry observations about society and human nature, in shifting landscapes from Africa to America to outer space and back again, Alien Stories breaks down the concept of foreignness to reveal what unites us all as ‘aliens’ within a complex and interconnected universe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781950774319
Publisher:	BOA Editions, Ltd.
Publication date:	05/11/2021
Series:	American Reader Series , #36
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

E.C. Osondu is the author of Alien Stories (BOA, 2020), which won the BOA Short Fiction Prize; Voice of America (HarperCollins, 2011); and the novel This House Is Not For Sale (HarperCollins, 2015). He is a winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing and the Allen and Nirelle Galso Prize for Fiction, among other awards. He earned his M.F.A. from Syracuse University, where he was a Syracuse UniversityFellow. His fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, AGNI, n+1, Guernica, Kenyon Review, McSweeney’s, Zyzzyva, The Threepenny Review, Lapham’s Quarterly, New Statesman, and many other places, and his work has been translated into over half a dozen languages including Icelandic, Japanese, and Belarusian. He lives in Rhode Island and teaches at Providence College.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for E. C. Osondu

“A vital voice in the short story, telling us new truths with deep humanity."

–George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo

“Osondu looks at the human condition in all its poignant absurdity; with observant wonder and subtle humor, he portrays our capacity for heartbreak, resilience, love, courage, sorrow, and most of all, our unique capacity for hope and hopelessness rolled together.”


—Mary Gaitskill, author of This Is Pleasure

“E.C. Osondu has written uncannily direct stories with nothing ‘posed’ about them. This is a collection of real power, surprise, and harsh beauty.”


—Amy Hempel, author of Sing to It

Praise for Voice of America

“There is room here for every style of storytelling, from folktale to crime tale to satire, to the very sombre and sad – and just when you think the writer has surely exhausted his bag of uproariously funny observations of street life in Lagos, or of immigrant experience in America, he unpacks more.”

—The Guardian

“His characters may dream about America, but E. C. Osondu’s bracing portrayal of life in Africa is the heart of this debut story collection.”

—The New York Times

“Meticulous and energetic, these stories brim with stubborn hope sprung free from life’s dark realities.”

—Elle

“Osondu’s excellent short stories, set in both Nigeria and the U.S., reveal the vast cultural chasm that persists between our countries . . . These richly shaded tales explore old ways and new, wealth and poverty, myth, and misapprehension.”

—Booklist

“Osondu juxtaposes the richness and desperation of life ‘on the ground’ in Africa with the actualities of the American dream . . . This book is essential.”

—Library Journal

Praise for This House Is Not For Sale

“Osondu’s novel captures the depth and breadth of African society in a neighborhood in a nameless country where fable-like stories revolve around a marvelous ancestral house run by the narrator’s grandfather.”

—Publishers Weekly, ★ Starred Review

“A very modern, compassionate voice . . . Osondu is ceaseless in his willingness to examine the human condition in all its glories and frailties.”

—Kirkus

“Clearly drawing on the culture of traditional oral storytelling, a refrain of unidentified voices whispering and gossiping appears regularly throughout the book. This recalls a classical Greek chorus, punctuating what is otherwise the voice of a single narrator; that of one of Grandpa's grandchildren, an eagle-eyed child who watches the lives of those around him unfold. His voice is like the string of a necklace on which a host of beads – the individual chapters – are strung.”

—The Independent

Editorial Reviews

03/01/2021

Osondu (Voices of America) probes the many meanings of alien in this revelatory collection about immigration and colonization. Blurring and skipping back and forth between science fiction and realism, the stories visit otherworldly planets (“Mark”) and a ranch where people of color are paid to enact racist stereotypes for white visitors (“Alien Enactors”). “Feast” portrays an alien lynching, and “All Our Earthly Posessions” describes the terror of migrating from one country to another. In “Debriefing,” new immigrants are given a list of instructions on how to survive in America, such as who not to date and the type of parties to avoid. In “Focus Group,” humans detail their opinions on aliens, from their skin color to their lack of democracy. While some entries peter out in flat, unremarkable endings, Osondu is at his best when shifting tone and perspective between stories, in one instance imitating the white gaze (“Guess what: these aliens from the African continent had turned out to be not too bad, actually”) and, in the next, voicing the object of it (on American cops: “What they don’t know makes them angry”). Osondu’s impressive range makes this worth a look. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for E. C. Osondu

“A vital voice in the short story, telling us new truths with deep humanity."
–George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo

“Osondu looks at the human condition in all its poignant absurdity; with observant wonder and subtle humor, he portrays our capacity for heartbreak, resilience, love, courage, sorrow, and most of all, our unique capacity for hope and hopelessness rolled together.”
—Mary Gaitskill, author of This Is Pleasure

“E.C. Osondu has written uncannily direct stories with nothing ‘posed’ about them. This is a collection of real power, surprise, and harsh beauty.”
—Amy Hempel, author of Sing to It

Praise for Voice of America

“There is room here for every style of storytelling, from folktale to crime tale to satire, to the very sombre and sad – and just when you think the writer has surely exhausted his bag of uproariously funny observations of street life in Lagos, or of immigrant experience in America, he unpacks more.”
—The Guardian

“His characters may dream about America, but E. C. Osondu’s bracing portrayal of life in Africa is the heart of this debut story collection.”
—The New York Times

“Meticulous and energetic, these stories brim with stubborn hope sprung free from life’s dark realities.”
—Elle

“Osondu’s excellent short stories, set in both Nigeria and the U.S., reveal the vast cultural chasm that persists between our countries . . . These richly shaded tales explore old ways and new, wealth and poverty, myth, and misapprehension.”
—Booklist

“Osondu juxtaposes the richness and desperation of life ‘on the ground’ in Africa with the actualities of the American dream . . . This book is essential.”
—Library Journal

Praise for This House Is Not For Sale

“Osondu’s novel captures the depth and breadth of African society in a neighborhood in a nameless country where fable-like stories revolve around a marvelous ancestral house run by the narrator’s grandfather.”
—Publishers Weekly, ★ Starred Review

“A very modern, compassionate voice . . . Osondu is ceaseless in his willingness to examine the human condition in all its glories and frailties.”
—Kirkus

“Clearly drawing on the culture of traditional oral storytelling, a refrain of unidentified voices whispering and gossiping appears regularly throughout the book. This recalls a classical Greek chorus, punctuating what is otherwise the voice of a single narrator; that of one of Grandpa's grandchildren, an eagle-eyed child who watches the lives of those around him unfold. His voice is like the string of a necklace on which a host of beads – the individual chapters – are strung.”
—The Independent

From the Publisher