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  • Published: 15 January 2012
  • ISBN: 9780099524229
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $32.99

Little Liberia

An African Odyssey in New York City




A powerful and revelatory account of the Liberian civil war and its human cost, following the lives of two men, from Monrovia to the east coast of America, and back.

On Park Hill Avenue in New York City, almost everyone is Liberian. Many fled here, survivors of a brutal civil war that claimed the lives of one in fourteen Liberians. But even an ocean away, the baggage of the past is difficult to leave behind. Steinberg spent two years in this close-knit neighbourhood, tracing the tensions between two men, Rufus and Jacob, with very different pasts but goals which were locked into a collision course. As national dramas played out on a small stage thousands of miles from home, Steinberg takes up a remarkable story of a horrific and heart-wrenching war, and of the quest to be human in a world losing its humanity.

  • Published: 15 January 2012
  • ISBN: 9780099524229
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $32.99

About the author

Jonny Steinberg

Jonny Steinberg was born in South Africa. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books, including Midlands and The Number, which both won the Sunday Times Alan Paton Prize (South Africa's premier non-fiction literary award). He is currently a lecturer in African Studies and Criminology at the University of Oxford.

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Praise for Little Liberia

Jonny Steinberg has come to define South African narrative non-fiction; now, in Little Liberia, he applies his prodigious talents globally. He is at the height of his powers, singular in his ability to tell a big story through vivid detail and unforgettable characters. He has one of the sharpest intellects of his generation; here he proves, once more, that he is also a masterful storyteller.

Mark Gevisser

Extraordinary, stylistically varied mix of reportage, history and biography, which is revealing about the author as well as about his subjects, and about the vagaries of memory and motive... Maps, photographs, notes, a list of further reading, as well as a thorough index, all provide useful support for his skilled and compassionate chronicle

Margaret Busby, Guardian

Steinberg has produced a juicy cocktail of reportage, biography and history that's compelling, shocking and totally engaging. It's storytelling at its expansive best... What appears on the surface to be a history of Liberia turns out to be a compelling story of memory, exile and loss: themes we can all relate to

Yolanda Zappaterra, Time Out

Extraordinary, stylistically varied mix of reportage, history and biography... A skilled, compassionate chronicle

Margaret Busby, Guardian

Brave, strong blend of history, biography and reportage

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