My Luck, a West African boy soldier stripped of both his youth and ensuing manhood, is part of a mine-defusing unit in war-torn West Africa in Chris Abani's stunning, melancholic, savagely beautiful and most elegantly written novella, Song for Night. The boy is separated from his crew and walks the long, lonely road of death to find them, and redemption—redemption for family and love and innocence thieved—a road lonely in the company of the ghosts of war and the ever-damned. The story unfolds as an inner-monologue and known but silent screams—My Luck's voice has been surgically removed—and the closer he comes to Truth the further Abani leaves us entranced. Cancel all afternoon appointments, read it in one sitting, and spend the rest of the evening blessedly stunned.
-- Ulyss. T. W. Bluebird
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