A captivating anthology with a mix of fun and heart-wrenching stories of the African experience.
An anthology of stories from Mukana Press featuring African authors, characters, and settings.
In this collection, the short stories are broken into two parts, the first being generally more lighthearted and colorful and the second focusing more on some of the harsher realities of the world. In the Chioma Iwunze Ibiam short story that gives the anthology its title, Lolo Ezigbo haggles over the prices of goods in a market while telling the seller about the exploits of her daughter, who has moved to America (“My dear, she hung up the phone before I could ask her what happiness had to do with marriage”). The following story, Favour Ahuchaogo’s “Little Woman,” focuses on the strength and perseverance of a short-statured woman and her daughter in a male-dominated culture after her husband dies. In other stories, readers see the maturing of a young woman through the eyes of her youngest daughter (Gloria Mwaniga Odary’s “The Ripening”), unhoused people being kidnapped and having their organs harvested (Christine Coates’ “Body Parts”), and a doctorate-holding, highly qualified woman from Zimbabwe landing a job in an American company only to be called the “diversity hire” (Munashe Kaseke’s “Tsoro”). A family deals with the public murder of the oldest daughter in Okoronkwo Chisom’s “She Lingers,” while in “Half Portraits Underwater,” by Dennis Mugaa,,Olioma loses her twin sister and travels to the beach to find a fitting memorial on the one-year anniversary. In “The Way We Bend,” by Milred Barya, a Black American woman travels to Africa to attend school and finds that while she’s not white enough for America, she’s also not Black enough for Africa. The 10 stories in this anthology will give readers a glimpse into cultures woefully underrepresented in modern literature. Each author has a distinct style, and each tale has some element that will stick with readers.
A captivating anthology with a mix of fun and heart-wrenching stories of the African experience.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Mukana Press
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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