Author Heather Neff explains in her moving novel, “Accident of Birth,” that no one should be forced to spend their life suffering because of where they were born.
Neff explores Africa and America and the discord of the larger world many choose to ignore.
The protagonist, Reba Thorton, a specialist in the Office for the Placement of Permanent Refugees, knows that Americans have the advantage of living in a politically stable country, with infinite opportunities, for no other reason than the fact that they were born there.
People can’t help it if they were born in China, or Afghanistan, or Rwanda.
Reba’s current life as a suburban wife with the perfect husband and daughter is far different from the life she once lived with her former husband Joseph, from Liberia.
Reba has learned from Joseph the trials and tribulations of his people and those she helps relocate to the United States who are fleeing from their native country.
At the end of their relationship, Joseph returned home to serve his people leaving Reba behind.
Joseph would always say, “I want no other life. Every time someone leaves my nation, part of its potential is lost. And if that person never returns, then the possibility of bringing about positive change is never realized. Liberia is who I am.”
But to her surprise, 20 years later, she finds out that the World Court of Human Rights is holding Joseph for crimes against humanity.
Reba knows that her first husband could not commit such crimes, and she must find a way to help him.
However, helping him will take a toll on her current relationship with her husband, Carl.
Carl has always felt that Reba was not over Joseph and he feels he will lose her if she continues on this journey.
Reba takes the chance and stops living within the confines of her own culture and risks losing her comfortable world.
“Accident of Birth” explores the complex relationships of Africans and Americans in a way that generates the idea that true understanding and acceptance of other cultures comes from an open mind and an open heart.
Neff is a professor of literature of the African diaspora. She is the author of “Haarlem,” “Wisdom” and “Blackgammon.”