A Moonless, Starless Sky

Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa

By: Alexis Okeowo

Narrated by: Kamali Minter

Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the 2018 Pen Open Book Award

"A rich and urgently necessary book" (New York Times Book Review), A Moonless, Starless Sky is a masterful, humane work of journalism by Alexis Okeowo - a vivid narrative of Africans who are courageously resisting their continent's wave of fundamentalism.

In A Moonless, Starless Sky Okeowo weaves together four narratives that form a powerful tapestry of modern Africa: a young couple, kidnap victims of Joseph Kony's LRA; a Mauritanian waging a lonely campaign against modern-day slavery; a women's basketball team flourishing amid war-torn Somalia; and a vigilante who takes up arms against the extremist group Boko Haram.

This debut book by one of America's most acclaimed young journalists illuminates the inner lives of ordinary people doing the extraordinary - lives that are too often hidden, underreported, or ignored by the rest of the world.

©2017 Alexis Okeowo (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"From an abolitionist who once owned a slave to women basketball players in a war zone, Alexis Okeowo has an alert and thoughtful eye for the unexpected. The portraits and voices she brings us from Africa are so vivid that the reader can easily forget the determination and bravery it must have taken to gather them in these unhappy corners of the continent." (Adam Hochschild, New York Times best-selling author of King Leopold's Ghost and Spain in Our Hearts)

"Alexis Okeowo has gone to the hardest continent and come away with a series of tales about the fight against fanaticism and despair. The result is a deeply sensitive portrait of modern Africa and a microscope on the human condition in the most difficult circumstances." (Dexter Filkins, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Forever War)

"Alexis Okeowo's startling and brilliant account of fierce horrors and tender hopes is one of the best records I have ever read of a world that has been made and remade time and again out of struggle and faith. Okeowo is just the kind of reporter we need to hear from when it comes to Africa, the 'new' old world: truthful, accurate, deep." (Hilton Als, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of White Girls)

Heart wrenching and inspiring

Great book, highly recommend! i really liked thr female point of view as well as how she broke up the stories.

Empathy inspired for all perspectives of a complex narrative.

Words fail to capture the intimacy one feels with the narrator and the perspective of humanity portrayed in this book, in case studies fashion. I mourn the loss and celebrate the accomplishments of the people introduced in this heart wrenching story. As I write this review, my words are blurry due to the tears that fill my eyes.
I recommend this book to all who seek to understand how as humans we are caught in the tangled webs we weave. We must stay awake and continue to advocate for justice, equity, and kindness wherever and when ever we see it threatened. I will forever be changed by this book, as will my teaching practice in the future. Everyone who seeks first to understand man’s inhumanity and how easily life can radically change should read A Moonless, Starless Sky, part memoir, novel, documentary and love letter to humanity.

Amazing and Inspirational Stories

So many beautiful examples of strong and corageous people. The narater brings the author's words to life so skillfully that you might forget that you are not actually listening to the people telling their own stories. Most importantly, the author brings the reality of the struggles to light. There but for the Grace of God go I.