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4 audiobooks that tell personal stories

4. 'A Moonless, Starless Sky,' by Alexis Okeowo

  • By Rochelle O'Gorman

"A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa," by Alexis Okeowo and Kamali Minter

Hachette Audio; eight hours; seven CDs; $35/www.audible.com download; $28.50

         Author Okeowo was raised in Alabama by Nigerian parents and spent six years working as a reporter in Africa.  She tells the stories of several men and women, regular Joes all, whose lives were disrupted by war and slavery. While the listener will learn quite a bit about Africa, this is merely stolid. Okeowo interviewed her subjects, sometimes following them for years, but reported in a very straightforward, unsophisticated manner, mixing in her own story between reports.  Not helping is Minter, who sounds very young and callow.  There is nothing wrong with her narration, per se, but someone with a little grit in her voice might have better expressed the pain we hear in these stories. 

Grade: B minus

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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