King's property, king's property, everything is correct. Elimane, Khoudiemata, Ndevui, Kpindi and Namsa—a family born of necessity, rather than blood—whistle this phrase to signal to one another, warning against potential invaders in their postcolonial African nest. Living by their wits, the group manages to eke out something approaching survival in the hulk of an abandoned airplane, a self-contained minisociety at the fringes of a much larger, glaringly dysfunctional and indiscriminately hostile one. 

In Little Family, Ishmael Beah, author of the bestselling A Long Way Gone, draws a vivid, disturbing and yet life-affirming picture of five young people who band together when abandoned by their families, their government and even society itself. Fortune, they discover early on, favors the prepared. First, Elimane hooks up with a mysterious figure he calls William Handkerchief, who employs the group to render certain confidential—and possibly illegal—services. Not long thereafter, Khoudiemata is able to deploy a combination of beauty and backbone that lands her among the unnamed country's smart set. 

At one juncture, a former professor and government official turned rabble-rouser delivers an impassioned speech with sentiments shared by many in former colonies: "Look at all you fools, including me, celebrating an Independence Day we didn't fight for. Some foreigners who didn't own this land decided that today you were free in a land where your ancestors lived before they arrived. This is why we are not free, because we have allowed someone else to decide when and how we should be free." With such a universal message, Little Family could easily have been set in Mumbai or Hong Kong, London or New York City—any place where untold riches exist cheek-by-jowl with soul-crushing poverty.

Sometimes, as both Elimane and Khoudiemata discover, all it takes is a chance meeting and the skill to deliver an essential commodity at exactly the right time to propel someone from the outside into the inner circle. And for myriad reasons, it might not be easy—or even possible—to ever go back. But every bird is forced at some point to abandon its nest, and people are much the same—even if, unlike the song, everything is not correct. 

Far from the madding world, five young people make a home in an abandoned airplane. They include smart, bookish Elimane, at 17 the group's father figure; clever mother figure Khoudimata, trying to keep everyone safe and fed; plus wily Ndevui, thoughtful Kpindi, and little Namsa. Elimane's association with the mysterious William Handkerchief might keep them safely hidden away forever, but Khoudimata's growing fascination with the "Beautiful People," scions of their country's corrupt and powerful, threatens the entire group. Beah, famed for the No. 1 New York Times best-selling A Long Way Gone, a memoir of his life as a boy soldier in Africa, here follows up his LJ-starred fiction debut, Radiance of Tomorrow.

Beah, the Sierra Leonean boy soldier whose 2007 memoir, A Long Way Gone, seared its way into readers' consciousness, is safely ensconced in the United States. But his heart will always be with the young victims of Africa's civil wars. In his second novel (after Radiance of Tomorrow), five children, wise beyond their years, band together for safety and survival in an abandoned airplane they call home. Led by the bookish Elimane and mothered by scarcely teenaged Khoudiemata, the motley group perfects the art of grifting, carefully planning its forays into the village to snatch food or items for barter. Beah portrays his characters with exquisite tenderness, imbuing them with a grace that belies their wretched situation, while he hints at their pasts through quickly tamped-down memories or nightmares gently dispelled by Khoudie's soothing hands. But Elimane's chance encounter with a mysterious new employer and Khoudie's involvement with a cadre of politically connected young people soon threaten the family's fragilely constructed invisibility. Verdict In a work less harrowing but no less effective than Radiance of Tomorrow, Beah continues to speak eloquently to the impact of colonialism on generations of African children for whom freedom is merely an illusion. [See Prepub Alert, 10/14/19.]—Sally Bissell, formerly with Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL

The allure of wealth tests a makeshift family in this vibrant outing from Beah (A Long Way Gone). Eighteen-year-old Khoudiemata acts as a motherly figure for a group of five young people living on the margins of the city of Foloiya in an unnamed African country that will remind readers of Sierra Leone. They spend their days roving through town and stealing essentials to survive. Twenty-year-old Elimane, a member of the family, connects with a rich man they call William Handkerchief, who enlists the "little family" in shady dealings in exchange for payments of hundreds of dollars. Khoudiemata uses her share to hide the reality of her current situation and befriend a group of young wealthy elites in Foloiya, including Frederick Cardew-Boston, scion of a powerfully connected family. Khoudiemata agrees to a weekend away with Frederick and his friends, but Elimane's concern about her involvement with Frederick leads to devastating consequences. Beah informs his characters' blend of street savvy and naïveté with bursts of details about the experiences that shaped them in a bustling and crooked society. Fans of African postcolonial fiction are in for a treat. Agent: Flip Brophy. (Apr.)