I don´t remember when I´ve laugh so much reading - to be more precise, listening - a book, but from now on, The Eternal Audience of One by Namibian-born Rémy Ngamije is a book to remember.
I had access to the book in audiobook format, narrated by Michael Boatman. It is not random that I mention this before I even start talking about the book, because in the case of the audiobook, particularly this audiobook, the voice and style of the narrator is almost everything. As the book has plenty of dialogues - online and in the ´real book´ of the story - the talent of the narrator has tremendous influence on the reception of the book.
Told in the cadence of an old story, The Eternal Audience of One is a novel of coming of age of a young man, Séraphin, a global soul in a world looking to throw him in boxes. Born in Rwanda, he flew for Kenya and feelt at home in Cape Town, where he studies law, but not keen in becoming a lawyer. He is clumsy, sometimes his relationship with women are awkward. his sex and financial encounters are often ridiculous. But who cares at this age, and his friends are the same, why be afraid he may be anti-social, after all.
Giving to Séraphin an authentic voice, the book also explores social rifts and political dramas, identity and longing. My only big regret for the book is that the plot is not necessarily going anywhere, as it mostly focus on the character development, and at least after the first half of the book one may expect more from the story.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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