THE PLOT: ‘Now I Am Here’ by Chidi Ebere is a literary novel about an unnamed soldier facing death. In his final hours, the soldier accepts his fate and attempts to explain how he got there in a journal addressed to a loved one back home. Even though his love will never read his words, the officer recounts his journey from carefree young man to war criminal. Part-warning, part-confession, the officer explains how he was an ordinary man who made the wrong choices due to virulent nationalism.

SUMMARY: I struggled with this novel. The concept has merit and there are some engaging chapters, but it was written so flatly…I was so bored. The epistolary style means there isn’t much description or dialogue, so all of the atmosphere is delivered via the main character’s voice. This worked well in climatic scenes that showed how he signed up to the NDM and the destruction of a village that compounded his moral decline, but overall it felt like a lot of telling and not showing. With too much “factual” backstory about the nationalist movement and not enough specifics to connect me with the main character, it’s two-and-a-half stars for a nice idea with poor execution.

GOOD BITS:  The main character’s voice is very strong and he gives you an impression of a young man seduced into nationalism to give himself a purpose. You can see how the author has taken inspiration from the Biafran War, Isis’s destruction of Palmyra in Syria, Orwell’s 1984 and Donald Trump, among other nationalist leaders and wars. The first page repeated the word “truth”, so I kept waiting for a twist or plot development that would lead me to question the meaning of truth. However, it was very predictable; a very straight-forward warning about nationalism without much story-telling to deliver the message.

NOT SO GOOD BITS: I could predict everything that happened. This novel recounts exactly what you would expect from a nationalist soldier confessing their wrong doings. It’s too generic. Yes, the message of the novel is that this soldier could be anyone – we are all capable of terrible deeds – but we’re not given enough specifics to care about him as a character. I would’ve preferred if he described a friend and/or antagonist throughout the novel (people from the office who were with him on the battlefield). This would provide an opportunity for him to bounce off others and allow for changes in pitch.

OVERALL: I’d recommend this book to fans of ‘This is How You Lose the Time War’ by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, ‘At Night All Blood is Black’ by David Diop, ‘Rose and the Burma Sky’ by Rosanna Amaka, and ‘Every Day Is for the Thief’ by Teju Cole.