I
fell in love with short stories in my preteen years. Chinua Achebe, Kola
Onadipe, and Cyprian Ekwensi were my fictional gods until the passage of time
brought the creative wonder woman, Alice Munro, into my life.
However,
as a Nigerian, it was in Lesley Nneka Arimah’s narrative universe that I first
saw myself as a speaking, living, welcome presence in the crazy world we live
in.
I’m
weird, like the characters in this collection. There was a time when fitting-in
was a big question for me, and like the characters, I felt troubled by the ugly
truth that may unfold. These 12 stories explore humanity in all its depressing
details and messiness.
For
me, Michelle Branch’s You Get Me is the perfect soundtrack for the stories
in this collection.
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE LEONARD PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE
A dazzlingly accomplished debut collection explores the ties that bind parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends to one another and to the places they call home.
In “Who Will Greet You at Home,” a National Magazine Award finalist for The New Yorker, A woman desperate for a child weaves one out…
T. C. Boyle’s characters become real-life people to you. You would think this is an
author that believes in everything and everyone, whether good or bad. I
laughed out loud a couple of times, and there were times I wanted to reach and
hold the characters.
This
was, for me, a journey through the façade of pop American lifestyle to the
closets of secrets.
A man falls from a roof whilst spying on his beautiful widowed neighbour. A newly married couple seeking enlightenment take a three year vow of silence and move to a yurt in the Arizona desert. A handsome young man works in real-estate by day, but has a far more sinister profession by night. An elderly woman is determined to return to her home in the countryside, despite the knowledge that in doing so she may be signing her own death warrant. Giant men are kept in cages to ensure their nightly service to their country. A man develops an unhealthy…
The stories were like an invitation to a place where people freely talk about real-life experiences that one wouldn’t have heard somewhere else. It chronicles the life of Ugandan women and their interaction with changes and challenges, while focusing on the twin themes of departing and returning.
"Men behave badly in these stories, women suffer or negotiate for power, families bicker and try to cooperate. There is Uganda, and there is Britain, and then all the miles in between."—Los Angeles Times
How far does one have to travel to find home elsewhere? The stories in Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s collection attempt to measure that distance. Centered around the lives of Ugandans in Britain, Let's Tell This Story Properly features characters both hyper-visible and unseen―they take on jobs at airport security, care for the elderly, and work in hospitals, while remaining excluded from white, British life. As they try…
One week in the life of Bosun and Titi, lovers longing for the approach of their wedding day, caught in the complicated web of secrets and the demands of trust.
One truth could threaten the love journey; but one of the lovers defies the risk and decides to let it all out, resulting in an unexpected unraveling.
