Measuring Time by Helon Habila

Measuring Time

Helon Habila

A haunting lyrical book about the human condition. You will de disturbed, enthralled and enchanted simultaneously. This is a book about journeys, a book about waiting, a book about things going wrong, and a book about things coming right. But most of all it is a book about how we understand each other, even when we fail to do so.

Extract
They were at Keti General Hospital, where Asabar lay, for the third day, in a critical condition. The doctors said he would live, even though a bullet had shattered his spine, paralyzing him from the waist down, and he'd never walk again. They were in a large anteroom, a sort of visitors' waiting room, next to the main ward where Asabar lay on a narrow bed by the window. Only one visitor at a time could go in to see him. Auntie Marina was now with him, probably saying a prayer over him.
Parallels
  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
  • Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
  • Porgy and Bess - the opera by -