Hands Washing Water
By Chris Abani
2006
First Published
4.01
Average Rating
92
Number of Pages
Chris Abani’s fourth poetry collection, Hands Washing Water, is a mischievous book of displacement, exile, ancestry, and subversive humor. The central section, “Buffalo Women,” is a Civil War correspondence between lovers that plays on our assumptions about war, gender, morality, and politics. Abani’s writing is ruthless, boldly engages with trauma, and is filled with surprising twists and turns.
Avg Rating
4.01
Number of Ratings
90
5 STARS
34%
4 STARS
38%
3 STARS
23%
2 STARS
3%
1 STARS
1%
goodreads
Author
Chris Abani
Author · 15 books
Christopher Abani (or Chris Abani) is a Nigerian author. He was a political prisoner in Nigeria at various times during 1985 and 1991. At times he was held in solitary confinement and he was held on death row for some time after being sentenced to death for treason. He is a Professor at the University of California, Riverside and the recipient of the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the 2001 Prince Claus Awards, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. Selections of his poetry appear in the online journal Blackbird.
