{"product_id":"9780374708054","title":"Little Boys Come from the Stars","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe peculiar and moving story of a Congolese boy's coming-of-age amid the political strife of postcolonial Congo\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"It is even said-but I admit that it's difficult to believe, even though I got this from my uncle-that when Papa was born, you couldn't follow the World Cup or the Olympics live and that Coca-Cola had yet to spread the selling of soft drinks to our village. Michael Jackson had yet to become famous . . . If all this was really true, I wonder how men managed to fill up the twenty-four hours of the day, three hundred sixty-five days a year.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis nickname is Matapari, which means \"trouble.\" He is an African child of the '90s-brilliant, mischievous, postcolonial, postmodern-caught in the crossfire of a chaotically liberated African country. Matapari grows up in a world of talking drums, the Internet, and satellite TV, a world of dictators who remake themselves as democrats overnight. His uncle is a stooge for the dictator; his father is a scholarly recluse obsessed with proving that blacks played key roles in Western history. Matapari is a young man in the middle-but the shrewdness and wit with which he tells his often riotously funny story set him apart from his relatives and countrymen. Emmanuel Dongala uses the ingenious viewpoint of a child to show up the telltale world of adults-and to show how one preserves one's independence in a corrupt and violent society.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47077683560688,"sku":"9780374708054","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780374708054_p0.jpg?v=1769917542","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780374708054","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}