A Long Way from Douala by Max Lobe

Good morning, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the Random Things Tours for Max Lobe's A Long Way from Douala!

After the death of their father, Choupi's older brother, Roger, runs away in search of fame as a football player in Europe. 

Their mother is devastated and so Choupi and his friend Simon set off to find the missing Roger. But it's been a month already and terrorist attacks in the north are dominating the news. 

With few clues to start with, the two take a winding path through Camaroon that leads to potential disaster around every corner!

Max Lobe's English debut is a coming-of-age road trip story of (mis)adventure!

With short chapters and plenty of humor, Lobe tackles some otherwise very heavy topics! As mentioned above, there's the ever looming threat of terrorist attacks, which causes Choupi understandable anxiety! That dark atmosphere combined with the grief felt by the family, as well as Choupi's own questions about identity could have weighed the book down. I believe, though, that Lobe's intention was not only to illustrate a sort of average guy story, but to give readers who aren't familiar with Camaroon a chance to see that—in general—the lives of the people living there aren't that different from their own. 

The story bounces around in time as Choupi reminisces about various instances that have led to the journey. Through his eyes, we see the strained family dynamic—Choupi is his mother's favorite and Roger's own hopes and dreams of being a football star aren't exactly supported. Indeed, tension between Choupi and Roger comes to a head before Roger leaves.

I'll admit that going into this story I knew absolutely nothing about Camaroon. I also wasn't really sure what to expect out of this one except that the description included the quote, "Through a series of joyful sparky vignettes, Cameroon life is revealed in all its ups and downs." I have to say that I agree wholeheartedly! This book, even with all of the various issues wrapped up in the thread of the search for Roger, does remain overall light. And clocking in at just about 200 pages, it's an incredibly easy read as well! 

A Long Way from Douala is out now in the UK from Hope Road and is due out in the States in September from Other Press.

If you have the chance, there's a UK launch event happening on March 7. You can find out more about that here.