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Silence Is My Mother Tongue by Sulaim...
A sensuous, textured novel of life in a refugee camp, long-listed for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
On a hill overlooking a refugee camp in Sudan, a young man strings up bedsheets that, in an act of imaginative resilience, will serve as a screen in his silent cinema. From the cinema he can see all the comings and goings in the camp, especially those of two new arrivals: a girl named Saba, and her mute brother, Hagos.
For these siblings, adapting to life in the camp is not easy. Saba mourns the future she lost when she was forced to abandon school, while Hagos, scorned for his inability to speak, must live vicariously through his sister. Both resist societal expectations by seeking to redefine love, sex, and gender roles in their lives, and when a businessman opens a shop and befriends Hagos, they cast off those pressures and make an unconventional choice.
With this cast of complex, beautifully drawn characters, Sulaiman Addonia details the textures and rhythms of everyday life in a refugee camp, and questions what it means to be an individual when one has lost all that makes a home or a future. Intimate and subversive, Silence Is My Mother Tongue dissects the ways society wages war on women and explores the stories we must tell to survive in a broken, inhospitable environment.
Bachelorette Diaries (Anniversary Edi...
Shiri Golan is smart, intelligent, and successful—top media girl and owner of Golan Technologies that’s hired to develop stealth software for the Kenya Defence Forces fighter jets.
But she isn’t as smart when she falls in love with a Catholic priest, and skeletons crawl out of her perfect man’s closet, hauling betrayal, a dark past, and deadly secrets with them.
Hurt, betrayed, and vengeful, Shiri finds herself caught between forgiveness and justice and fighting unknown forces.
This is definitely a great read, and the suspense is simply enthralling.
Verah Omwocha, Kenyan Writer
The book is a light read.
Nancy Oyula
Kengeza La Jasiri By Shisia Wasilwa
Jasiri ana Kengeza. Kengeza hilo halimpi amani. Linamsumbua maishani. Hilo kengeza linayaunganisha maisha yake ya zamani na usasa. Kalipata ujanani. Amekataa kulizika katika kaburi la sahau. Je, Jasiri atapata tiba ya kengeza hilo analopenda, kulificha pembeni mwa kijoyo chake? Anagundua pia marehemu babake kaaga dunia kutokana na hilo kengeza. Je, haya makengeza ndiyo nini? Ni masimulizi yanayonata, yaliyosheheni taharuki na maudhui mazito.
Kuhusu mwandishi
Shisia Wasilwa ni mwandishi na mwanahabari stadi wa siku nyingi. Aliwahi kuhudumu na Shirika la Habari nchini Kenya-KBC, China Radio Kimataifa, Citizen Tv na Radio, BBC na Deutsche Welle-DW. Baadhi ya kazi zake ni pamoja Makovu ya Uhai na Dunia Tambara Bovu. Alihariri Ndoto ya Almasi chake Ken Walibora, mwongozo wa Utengano wa Said. A. Mohammed miongoni mwa kazi nyingine teule. Kwa sasa anazamia shahada ya uzamili katika masuala ya mawasiliano katika chuo Kikuu cha Aga Khan.
Pattern Master by Octavia E. Butler
The combined mind-force of a telepathic race, Patternist thoughts can destroy, heal, rule. For the strongest mind commands the entire pattern and all within.
Now the son of the Patternmaster craves this ultimate power, He has murdered or enslaved every threat to his ambition--except one.
In the wild, mutant-infested hills, a young apprentice must be hunted down and destroyed because he is the tyrant's equal... and the Pattermaster's other son.
This Red Land: A novel
“I was moved by the character’s struggle to find meaning in their lives. So sorry to see it end! I couldn’t put it down. It is a story told with great imagination and sensitivity. The descriptions of New York, Kenya and Japan come alive.” - Mel Haber, business writing teacher
“This novel expertly transports the readers across continents, decades and cultures. The characters’ lives are nicely interwoven in this real-world novel.” - Rich Green, retired professor of comparative literature.
“In this moving sequel to his novels Malaika, Salted With Fire, and Kwamboka’s Inquiry, Dobrin weaves a riveting, tragic tale bridging the lives of his richly developed characters in New York and Kenya across decades marked by violent political and social upheavals. From the red soils of Kenya, to the red of blood spilled, to the red of political ideology, This Red Land presents timeless themes of love, struggle, and yearning for justice in a carefully crafted, wise, and deeply human work of richly detailed historical fiction.” - Colleen Eren, sociologist.
Enriching. Enjoyably Complex. Bravo!
“Vivid characters leading parallel lives with vastly different experiences and perceptions of the world are expertly interweaved by the author to briefly intercept in an unexpected and powerful way amid rich cultural, political and historical texture. This isn’t just one captivating story - but instead three! Brilliant surprise endings leave sense of something to grieve, but also to imagine and hope for.” - Jack Beder, Vice-President of Consumer Research Company
Choices I never Had
Till I’m Laid to Rest
In this compelling novel, Till I'm Laid To Rest by Garfield Ellis' , we meet Shirley Temple Brown a young woman who has survived some of the hardest social and political times Jamaica has seen. But now she is finally tired of just surviving, she wants to thrive and she knows she must leave Jamaica in order to do so.
She makes the decision to leave Jamaica for a new start in Miami, USA. Not long after arriving in the city, she begins to see what the glare of the sun and the bright lights have kept hidden: elderly American retirees living out their last days in the warmth and comfort their youth never afforded them, while being cared for by complete strangers; drug dealers hungry for their slice of the American dream, sexual predators, con artists and murderers.
Alone in a place where standing still is sure death sentence, Shirley is determined to succeed or be laid to rest!
You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes
Joe is done with the cities. He’s done with the muck and the posers, done with Love. Now, he’s saying hello to nature, to simple pleasures on a cozy island in the Pacific Northwest. For the first time in a long time, he can just breathe.
He gets a job at the local library—he does know a thing or two about books—and that’s where he meets her: Mary Kay DiMarco. Librarian. Joe won’t meddle; he will not obsess. He’ll win her the old-fashioned way: by providing a shoulder to cry on, a helping hand. Over time, they’ll both heal their wounds and begin their happily ever after in this sleepy town.
The trouble is, Mary Kay already has a life. She’s a mother. She’s a friend. She’s busy.
True love can only triumph if both people are willing to make room for the real thing. Joe cleared his decks. He’s ready. And hopefully, with his encouragement and undying support, Mary Kay will do the right thing and make room for him.
Say My Name and Other African Stories...
Cultural difference elicits both essentialist and hybrid conversations from diverse fields, particularly the humanities and social sciences. For Africa, essentialist voices, for instance, underscore the need to reject Western culture and return to the African ways of the past. In the 1956 conference of Black Writers, essentialists were represented by Aime Cessaire. In their view, the great Africa could only be founded on its past cultural ways.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Obi Wale bolster Cessaire’s proposition in their defence of African languages with respect to the writing of African literature. In their opinion, writing African literature in European languages in tantamount to transmitting European values. Frantz Fanon, on the other hand, contented that Africa can only succeed through a mix of Western and African ways.
Referring to Fanon, Homi Bhabha associates essentialist discourses with the politics of polarity. For him, the return to traditional culture is a recipe for cultural othering that could threaten national aspirations.
It is in the backdrop of these divergent conversations that the stories in Say my Name and Other African Stories from Home and Away we selected. While Joy Chenyenyozi, Yvonne Wamuyu, Maurice Simbili, Virginia Asenath and James Nderitu stand for a cultural mix of what seems inevitable in Africa, Denis Waswa, Muruli Muhande, Imali Abala and Ann Namatasi Lutomia are concerned with representation of Africa’s lost past. Using autobiographical style, the authors capture among other things, the physical environment, childhood activities, initiation rites, parenting styles, dances, food, cherished values and other aspects that show the cultural diversity of the Kenyan populace.
Korondo-Panic: A Satirized Diary of a...
“Articles in this book overflow with humour and thought provoking jokes. The way Araka twists and plays around with names of public figures, their actions and inactions, and blends it with the joys and disappointments of ‘ordinary’ citizens is on another level. The style is readable and appealing. The articles revolve around the novel Coronavirus disease. This is a time to be told and retold to present and future generations.” - Rose Kong’ani Keya, Book Editor and Teacher
“The author has banked on wordplay to offer his contribution in chronicling a critical moment in our lives when COVID-19 threw the world into panic and confusion. The book tells of humanity’s inadequacies, hits and misses. Through his trademark satire, Araka shows that as human beings, we deserve better and can do better even when caught up in difficulties. - Edna, Gutenbergschule, Leipzig
“Many occurrences happen in everyday life and can go unnoticed despite being significant. Araka is a gifted writer that makes such occurrences memorable through satire and humour. The themes in the articles including: political manipulations, exploitation, corruption, family relations, hypocrisy, traditions, and modern technology are well intertwined in the writer’s rich narrative style with vivid descriptions that capture the reader to achieve reading this collection in the shortest time possible. I recommend this collection to readers that wish to relive occurrences in their lives and surroundings in a laughable way.” - George Onkundi, Principal, Nyamira School.
About the Author: Joshua Nyangau Araka is a journalist, creative writer and biographer. His other published works include: Peppered Path, Chronicles of the Idler-Volume One, and Beaten Odds, a Biography of Stephen Mabea.
The Return of the Sun by Kevin Omwanza
The Return of the Sun explores the immorality of slavery with partakers offering excuses in support of the brutal practice. The author elicits questions on how to end the practice: by supplanting the captors or forging a new, more inclusive, path.
The islands, home to most African communities, are breeding grounds for pirates who defend against invaders or are out to enslave others. An African king and slave trader, Jabari, is cruel to neighbouring communities, as a result of which his son and heir to the throne, Shaka, is abducted. Shaka's mother later flees on account of her husband's callousness.Zola, while searching for her brother, gets abducted by Charlie's pirates.
Charlie falls in love with her, but she promises to marry him when Charlie frees Shaka. Enchanted, Charlie agrees. Shaka leaves, planning to return and save all his people. Meanwhile, Tendai, a slave who grew up in Jabari's palace, realizes that the king orphaned him at an early age.
He joins Black Caesar, a black pirate focused on ending slavery. Caesar desires to entrench African civilization through the revival of Egyptian civilization. He has an island where he settles freed Africans and maintains a critical attitude towards Shaka who, though perceived as saviour by his people, practices slavery.
In a party that paves way for Charlie's marriage to Zola, Caesar lays siege that portends uncertainties!
With Eyes Wide Open by Erick B. Gichuru
With Eyes Wide Open Novel is a Raw African account of losing innocence, self-discovery and the madness that lies in between!
With Eyes Wide Open Novel is about us. We all have a dark side! At some point in our lives, we’ve done or said something that we are truly ashamed of. For some of us, our forefathers are still turning in their graves. They say we become different versions of ourselves before we become who we truly are.
Set in the heart of Africa and inspired by life itself, the author vividly captures the messy human experience that might hit too close to home.
Author: Erick B. Gichuru
Genre: Literary Fiction; Romance
Type: Print Paperback
Length: 273 Pages
Publisher: Thelocco Publishers
No New Land by M. G. Vassanji
Nurdin Lalani and his family, Asian immigrants from Africa, have come to the Toronto suburb of Don Mills only to find that the old world and its values pursue them.
A genial orderly at a downtown hospital, he has been accused of sexually assaulting a girl.
Although he is innocent, traditional propriety prompts him to question the purity of his own thoughts. Ultimately, his friendship with the enlightened Sushila offers him an alluring freedom from a past that haunts him, a marriage that has become routine, and from the trials of coping with teenage children. Introducing us to a cast of vividly drawn characters within this immigrant community, Vassanji is a keen observer of lives caught between one world and another.
Hidden in Plain Sight by Jeffrey Archer
Newly promoted, Detective Sergeant William Warwick has been reassigned to the drugs squad. His first case: to investigate a notorious south London drug lord known as the Viper.
But as William and his team close the net around a criminal network unlike any they have ever encountered, he is also faced with an old enemy, Miles Faulkner. It will take all of William’s cunning to devise a means to bring both men to justice, a trap neither will expect, one that is hidden in plain sight . . .
Hidden in Plain Sight follows on from Nothing Ventured and continues with Turn a Blind Eye, but can be read as a standalone story.
Over My Dead Body by Jeffrey Archer
THE CLOCK IS TICKING IN THIS ROLLERCOASTER RIDE OF A THRILLER…
In London, the Metropolitan Police set up a new Unsolved Murders Unit—a cold case squad—to catch the criminals nobody else can. In Geneva, millionaire art collector Miles Faulkner—convicted of forgery and theft—was pronounced dead two months ago. So why is his unscrupulous lawyer still representing a dead client?
On a luxury liner en route to New York, the battle for power at the heart of a wealthy dynasty is about to turn to murder. And at the heart of all three investigations are Detective Chief Inspector William Warwick, rising star of the department, and ex-undercover agent Ross Hogan, brought in from the cold.
But can they catch the killers before it’s too late?
Recitatif by Toni Morrison
A beautiful, arresting short story by Toni Morrison--the only one she ever wrote--about race and the relationships that shape us through life, with an introduction by Zadie Smith.
Twyla and Roberta have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in the St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable at the time, they lose touch as they grow older, only to find each other later at a diner, then at a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and in disagreement each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them.
Written in 1980 and anthologized in a number of collections, this is the first time Recitatif is being published as a stand-alone hardcover. In the story, Twyla's and Roberta's races remain ambiguous. We know that one is white and one is black, but which is which? And who is right about the race of the woman the girls tormented at the orphanage?
Morrison herself described this story as "an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial." Recitatif is a remarkable look into what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, and about how perceptions are made tangible by reality.
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr ...
Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece of the duality of good and evil in man's nature sprang from the darkest recesses of his own unconscious—during a nightmare from which his wife awakened him, alerted by his screams. More than a hundred years later, this tale of the mild-mannered Dr. Jekyll and the drug that unleashes his evil, inner persona—the loathsome, twisted Mr. Hyde—has lost none of its ability to shock.
Its realistic police-style narrative chillingly relates Jekyll's desperation as Hyde gains control of his soul—and gives voice to our own fears of the violence and evil within us.
Written before Freud's naming of the ego and the id, Stevenson's enduring classic demonstrates a remarkable understanding of the personality's inner conflicts—and remains the irresistibly terrifying stuff of our worst nightmares.
Terrorists of the Aberdare by Nganga ...
How far can a man go to win the love of a woman? That is the question at the heart of this novella by Ng’ang’a Mbugua. Presented as a stream of consciousness, the narrative recalls the life and travails of Sonko Wakadosi, a man who is as much a victim of social circumstances as his own follies, both of which conspire to trap him in a vicious and tragic drama.
Yet, this is also a story about the consequences of the unchecked conflict between man and wild animals at a time when climate change and environmental degradation have man locked in a losing battle with the forces of nature.
Written in a light, humourous and satirical style, the book won the Wahome Mutahi Literary Prize in 2010 and in 2011 was runner up in the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature, Kenya’s biggest award for fiction. The first edition was published in 2009 and reprinted in 2012. The book has been selected as a study text for a Masters class at the University of Nairobi and undergraduate class at Daystar University, Nairobi.
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi
Influenced by the mysterious place gingerbread holds in classic children's stories--equal parts wholesome and uncanny, from the tantalizing witch's house in "Hansel and Gretel" to the man-shaped confection who one day decides to run as fast as he can--beloved novelist Helen Oyeyemi invites readers into a delightful tale of a surprising family legacy, in which the inheritance is a recipe.
Perdita Lee may appear to be your average British schoolgirl; Harriet Lee may seem just a working mother trying to penetrate the school social hierarchy; but there are signs that they might not be as normal as they think they are. For one thing, they share a gold-painted, seventh-floor walk-up apartment with some surprisingly verbal vegetation. And then there's the gingerbread they make. Londoners may find themselves able to take or leave it, but it's very popular in Druhástrana, the far-away (and, according to Wikipedia, non-existent) land of Harriet Lee's early youth. In fact, the world's truest lover of the Lee family gingerbread is Harriet's charismatic childhood friend, Gretel Kercheval--a figure who seems to have had a hand in everything (good or bad) that has happened to Harriet since they met.
Decades later, when teenaged Perdita sets out to find her mother's long-lost friend, it prompts a new telling of Harriet's story. As the book follows the Lees through encounters with jealousy, ambition, family grudges, work, wealth, and real estate, gingerbread seems to be the one thing that reliably holds a constant value. Endlessly surprising and satisfying, written with Helen Oyeyemi's inimitable style and imagination, it is a true feast for the reader.
Straight from the Horses Mouth by Mer...
This hilarious, colorful portrait of a sex worker navigating life in modern Morocco introduces a promising new literary voice.
Thirty-four-year-old prostitute Jmiaa reflects on the bustling world around her with a brutal honesty, but also a quick wit that cuts through the drudgery. Like many of the women in her working-class Casablanca neighborhood, Jmiaa struggles to earn enough money to support herself and her family—often including the deadbeat husband who walked out on her and their young daughter.
While she doesn’t despair about her profession like her roommate, Halima, who reads the Quran between clients, she still has to maintain a delicate balance between her reality and the “respectable” one she paints for her own more conservative mother.
This daily grind is interrupted by the arrival of an aspiring young director, Chadlia, whom Jmiaa takes to calling “Horse Mouth.” Chadlia enlists Jmiaa’s help on a film project, initially just to make sure the plot and dialogue are authentic. But when she’s unable to find an actress who’s right for the starring role, she turns again to Jmiaa, giving the latter an incredible opportunity for a better life.
In her breakout debut novel, Meryem Alaoui creates a vibrant picture of the day-to-day challenges faced by working people in Casablanca, which they meet head-on with resourcefulness and resilience.