Measuring Time (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780393052510)

Mamo and LaMamo are twin brothers living in the small Nigerian village of Keti, where their domineering father controls their lives. With high hopes the twins attempt to flee from home, but only LaMamo escapes successfully and is able to live their dream of becoming a soldier who meets beautiful women. Mamo, the sickly, awkward twin, is doomed to remain in the village with his father. Gradually he comes out of his father's shadow and gains local fame as a historian, and, using Plutarch's Parallel Lives as his model, he embarks on the ambitious project of writing a "true" history of his people. But when the rains fail and famine rages, religious zealots incite the people to violence--and LaMamo returns to fight the enemy at home.

A novel of ardent loyalty, encroaching modernity, political desire, and personal liberation, Measuring Time is a heart-wrenching history of Nigeria, portrayed through the eyes of a single family.

Author: Helon Habila
ISBN-10: 0393052516
ISBN-13: 9780393052510
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English
Published: 02/01/2007
Pages: 384
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.50w x 1.00d
Award: Hurston/Wright LEGACY Award - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 10/23/2006 pg. 28
Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2006 pg. 1146
Library Journal 12/01/2006 pg. 110
Booklist 12/01/2006 pg. 22
Entertainment Weekly 02/15/2007 pg. 81
Black Issues Book Review 01/01/2007 pg. 40
New York Times 02/25/2007 pg. 21