Scale Boy: An African Childhood

In this gorgeous memoir, Cameroonian novelist Nganang (A Trail of Crab Tracks) chronicles his coming of age in the 1970s and ’80s and his decision to pursue a literary life. Nganang grew up in an industrious family that couldn’t afford bus fare but avoided destitution. His seamstress mother, worried that her daydreaming son would grow into a “useless man,” insisted he work after school. He invested in a German-made scale and began weighing people on the streets of Youande, Cameroon’s capital, for a small fee. The job inadvertently set him on the path to a life in letters, since he ended each day waiting in a government library for his father to finish work. The books Nganang discovered there awakened in him an understanding of colonialism’s “numinous wreckage” and the ways that British, French, and German rule helped shape his environment. Armed with this knowledge, Nganang became “a believer in the power of letters” and gained appreciation for how the multiethnic city of Youande was forged out of the jungle by “multiple shattered dreams of the West.” This elegant portrayal of finding grace and beauty amid upheaval will captivate readers. Photos. Agent: Peter Steinberg, UTA. (Jan.)