This was a DNF for me. I read more than half and just gave up. I was hoping for a story about life, politics, and growing up as a Rwandan refugee in Namibia. This book is that, but so much of the time is spent on Seraphin's sex life that I grew bored and quit reading. I will say that Ngamije has a way with a story. Many of the stories Seraphin tells are funny and entertaining and, sometimes, touching and heartbreaking. I just found his constant fixation on sex to be tedious. Perhaps that's just because Seraphin is a 20-something and I'm not. In any case, I did not finish this book.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Eternal Audience of One by Remy Ngamije.

This is a story about Seraphin and his experience out of his family and into the high life of Cape Town South Africa where he will experience love, friendship, loss, and racism while working to get through law school.

Have you ever had a conversation with a friend who was monologuing for a long time to the point where you could kind of zone out, so long as you caught the important key words, and overall gist? That's how reading this book felt. Like a long, messy story, full of unimportant details, so when you hit on something important, that's the stuff that stuck. It didn't make for a super enjoyable read, but I did get something out of it.

This is a coming of age story of a family who flees Rwanda in the wake of the genocide in the 1990s and goes to Namibia.

It centers around Seraphin and his family. I was hooked from the first sentence and could not put this book down. It was cinematic and I could easily imagine myself there. There is so much in this novel from family to migration to education. It's a novel of epic proportions. A definite hit in my book!

I really enjoyed the first two-thirds or so of this book, but then it felt like it when on too long for me. The writing was good and funny at points. For me it just got slow for my liking. Overall it was a good coming of age story, and commentary.

I spoke to Namibian author Rémy Ngamije about his debut novel, THE ETERNAL AUDIENCE OF ONE, on KSQD 90.7 FM Santa Cruz's "Story Behind the Story."

A good story. More for my personal library than for use in learning. I would recommend to friends that enjoy the same genre

This was a beautiful, funny, well-written coming-of-age story. I loved the nontraditional style and pace of the story.

I found parts of this book fascinating and Seraphin was an intriguing character. However, the story dragged and I found it difficult to get through.

Although I wanted to love this one based on description and premise, it just wasn't for me.

This coming-of-age tale follows a young man who is forced to flee his homeland of Rwanda during the Civil War and make sense of his reality.

Nobody ever makes it to the start of a story, not even the people in it. The most one can do is make some sort of start and then work toward some kind of ending.

I loved to read about Seraphin’s experience in law school and his adjustment to a new life after survival of having to flee his homeland and struggle through the migrant experience. I also enjoyed the author’s writing and thought the descriptions of the human experience were beautiful. However, the pacing felt off to me and I felt myself needing to push myself to keep going and finish the book. I also felt that I was not fully following the nonlinear style of the book. The ending was a bit abrupt to me. I’m excited to read more of the author’s work, as I think the pacing will be improved as they continue their work.

A clever and sweeping novel that centers heavily on the ideas of identity and place and how those two things interact.

I received this book as an Advanced Reader copy and am sure glad I did! It is about Seraphin, a Rwandan refugee who lives with his family in Namibia. Familial background and insights are sprinkled throughout the book. He then goes to law school on scholarship at the encouragement of his parents. The challenges of being a black or white person in Cape Town, college, relationships, and life in general for young people are well portrayed. I especially liked the approach of character development the author takes. One of the ways the reader learns about Seraphin’s friends is through snippets of texts! The law school friends form a tight friendship circle called “High Lords of Empireland.” “The Great Chamber of the Seraphins” describes how Seraphin resolves difficulties and comes to critical decisions. In essence, he weighs the pros and cons of his choices by debating within different aspects of himself. I loved the author’s approach to the “Lords” and the “Chamber.” The book is well written, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in looking at life of a young person in Africa or just wants a well-written story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the book’s publisher, Scout Press An imprint of Simon & Schuster, for an advanced reader’s copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Seraphin family fled Rwanda during the genocide for Kenya and then Namibia. Seraphin in so many ways is like many other youth wanting to be away from his family and not take on the education or job expected by one’s family. The book is a tale of family, coming of age, fleeing one’s homeland, war, race and finding one’s identity. I wasn’t the target audience for this coming of age novel.

Thank you #NetGalley, #SimonandSchuster and #RemyNgamije for the copy of #TheEternalAudienceofOne for my honest review.

Thank yo for giving me a chance to read this. This is unlike any book I've read in a long time- uniquely funny, it follows a young man growing from Rwanda during their Civil War. I enjoy reading books where multiple viewpoints are given. It dragged on a little for me and also didn't "wrap everything up in a little bow" like I usually like but that's what leaves a story in your head for a bit.

I really enjoyed this book including the characters and the atmosphere of each African country that each were their own type of character. The protagonist, Seraphin was a young man who was Rwanda born, moved to Namibia, and then educated in South Africa. The different people that enter his life as he is coming of age through school and experiencing the good and bad of the world.
I enjoyed his relationships with friends and then with his girlfriend. I also enjoyed the renewed and more adult relationship with his father.
I appreciate the eARC that I received in exchange for an honest review, however, I was able to listen to the audiobook and would highly recommend going for that as the accents and narrator really bring so much life into the author’s work.

#TheEternalAudienceofOne #netgalley #GalleryBooks

Rwandan-born Namibian writer and photographer Rémy Ngamije’s sharp-witted and incisive debut, The Eternal Audience of One, paints a revealing portrait of its peripatetic protagonist and the many places he’s called home.

Séraphin Turihamwe’s family fled Rwanda for Kenya in the midst of genocide and eventually landed in Namibia. Throughout Séraphin’s story, spanning many years and several countries, Ngamije vividly captures the life of a man for whom the idea of home is “a constant source of stress, a place of conformity, foreign family roots trying to burrow into arid Namibian soil that failed to nourish him.”

Despite the cultural specificity, many readers will recognize the intergenerational conflicts and warring emotions at the center of this bildungsroman.
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Ngamije’s writing is beautiful, his observations original and precise, his sense of place unsurpassed. The plot is less developed, but flaws don’t detract from this gorgeously imperfect first novel. Séraphin’s experiences depict a fascinating, multidimensional and culturally and politically damning version of post-apartheid Cape Town. Every bit of insight, succinctly and humorously presented, will cause readers to stop and think. Ngamije displays copious talent and an authentic and elegant literary style in this striking debut.
4.5 stars
Read the full review at BookPage.com: https://www.bookpage.com/reviews/26475-remy-ngamije-eternal-audience-one-fiction/#:~:text=Rwandan%2Dborn%20Namibian%20writer%20and,many%20places%20he's%20called%20home.

Eternal Audience of One is a character driven novel that focuses on a family in Namibia, but with emphasis on the eldest son Seraphin. I don’t usually read this type of book. I’m more into faster-paced, plot driven stories. It’s taken me a month to make it half through the story and at this point I’m not sure I want to finish. I think I’m going to put this one on hold for a bit and come back to it when I’m ready because I do find Sera extremely funny and the writing is lovely.

What a unique and well-written novel!

I will definitely be recommending this. The writing was almost lyrical, like music. I was enveloped in the words and reading this book was so amazing. I can't believe I got through it as quickly as I did. I really enjoyed this author's way with words.

Highly recommended!

A big thank you to the author Remy Ngamije, the publisher and NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for my candid review.

This book was written by a new voice out of Africa. It was at times poignant, funny, and cringe worthy. Just about everything a parent would feel when their child is journeying towards adulthood. It is the story of a young black Rwandan boy, who fled Rwanda in the middle of the night with his family after the government was overthrown. They became refugees in Nigeria, which is tantamount to being a third class citizen. He eventually earns a scholarship to University in Cape Town South Africa, and begins to turn away from his family. This is an excellent coming of age story told with wit and empathy. I really enjoyed it.

"Life is not hard in Windhoek, but it is not easy, either. The poor are either falling behind or falling pregnant. The rich refuse to send the elevator back down when they reach the top. And since cities require a sturdy foundation of tolerated inequalities, Windhoek is like many other big places in the world. It is a haven for more, but a place of less. If you are not politically connected or from old white money, then the best thing to be is a tourist. The city and the country fawn over tourists. The country's economy does, too. That is when it is not digging itself poor.
That is Windhoek. The best thing to do in the city is arrive and leave."

And now, raise your hand if you find yourself wondering where Windhoek is. Don’t be shy. You’ll have plenty of company…ah. Yes. I applaud your bravery, being the first. And you, and you…and you in the back. Anyone else? That’s what I thought. Look around. Almost all of you. So now, I’ll relieve your discomfort and tell you, it’s in Namibia. Our protagonist, Seraphim, and his family must relocate there during the upheaval in their native Rwanda. This is his story, told in the first person.

My thanks go to Net Galley and Gallery Books for the review copy. This book is available to the public now.

Seraphim’s parents are strivers, working industriously to ensure that he and his siblings will have excellent educations and better lives. As a young man, he works hard and is fiercely competitive in school, but once he is at university in Cape Town, he becomes a party animal, using Cliffs Notes to dodge the assigned reading and embarking on booze fueled, all night romps. Ultimately, this is a coming of age story in a different time and place than that which most Western readers are accustomed to. And oh, my friend, if you are going to spread your wings and stretch your global literacy just a teensy bit, then this is one painless way to do it.

Once he’s inside South Africa, Sera deals with Apartheid, and during the course of his education, is advised by a wise friend, who tells him that if you want decent notes, you must befriend BWGs. These are Benevolent White Girls, and they seem to know some sort of educational code that young Black men have somehow been shut out of. There’s a funny passage about how to tell if a Caucasian is the sort one can hang out with, and to explain the difference in his own social class growing up, in contrast to others in his social group, he describes a problem with desks. There are fifty children in the class, he says, and not everyone can have a desk. Little Sera gets busy, and eventually is able to rise from chair number 50, to chair number three. Then, after a struggle with Gina and Hasham, the first and second place students, he rises to the first chair, first desk. When a friend asks what became of Gina and Hasham, Sera shrugs with his characteristic cocky arrogance, and he tells him, “I like to think they married and had second and third place children.”

Part of what I love is the way the voice here sounds like young men in their late teens and early twenties, here, there, or probably just about anywhere. In my experience, this demographic is the most hilarious of any in real life, and it comes shining through here, full of irreverent wit.

The narrative isn’t linear, and there’s some creative jumping around that, when combined with the internal discussions the narrator calls “The Council of the Seraphims,” can be difficult to keep up with. Don’t try to read the second half of this novel after you’ve taken your sleeping pill.

All told, this is a brainy, hilarious work, which is perhaps why Ngamije is being compared to Chabon and Zadie Smith. He resembles neither, apart from being very literate and extremely funny. In fact, this book is worth reading just for the snarky texts sent by Sera and his friends; their handles crack me up even before I see what they have to say.

Highly recommended, even at full price.