Reviewer: Ryan O’Boyle
Book: The Upper World
Author: Femi Fedugba
Time is generally experienced in a linear manner. We, as humans, are born, we grow, we die. Sometimes, oftentime when we realize we have made a mistake, we wish we could change the past. Time travel is often thought of as a vehicle for such change. A question often asked is what if someone could harness the power of time and travel forward or backwards through it with current knowledge to change the present. In The Upper World, by Femi Fedugba, the upper world represents a plane where traveling through time is possible. Esso Adenon struggles with life as a teenager in an alternate England. His life is rife with trying to steer clear of gang wars, juggling school and figuring out how to help his single mother make ends meet. As he tries to navigate all of these things, a chance occurrence finds him at the wrong end of gang retaliation. Rhia is a fifteen year old in foster care, struggling to make it through school and uses her soccer acumen to attempt to make a professional team to make it out of the gutter. Adult Esso enters Rhia’s life and turns it upside down in search of answers on how to change the past. A harried man, blinded by the event he seeks to change, Esso holds on to the past with the firm grasp of a man who regrets their actions
From start to finish the story captivates the senses. Endless possibilities loom. A gripping take on how time travel could be possible and what tremendous constraints it may have. Grounded in realism, elevated in fiction, I found the pages kept turning and the build up kept swelling. The characters are vivid, fleshed out and relatable. Fedugba inks a thoughtful, new, captivating fable of love, loss, time dilation, interpersonal relationships and troubled youth.