City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

Walking on cowrie shells, stories, Nana Nkweti

eng

illustrations

no index present

fiction

Walking on cowrie shells

Nana Nkweti

stories

A virtuosic debut collection that roves across genres and styles, by a finalist for the Caine Prize. In her powerful, genre-bending debut story collection, Nana Nkweti's virtuosity is on full display as she mixes deft realism with clever inversions of genre. In the Caine Prize finalist story "It Takes a Village, Some Say," Nkweti skewers racial prejudice and the practice of international adoption, delivering a sly tale about a teenage girl who leverages her adoptive parents to fast-track her fortunes. In "The Devil Is a Liar," a pregnant pastor's wife struggles with the collision of western Christianity and her mother's traditional Cameroonian belief system as she worries about her unborn child. In other stories, Nkweti vaults past realism, upending genre expectations in a satirical romp about a jaded PR professional trying to spin a zombie outbreak in West Africa, and in a mermaid tale about a Mami Wata who forgoes her power by remaining faithful to a fisherman she loves. In between these two ends of the spectrum there's everything from an aspiring graphic novelist at a comic con to a murder investigation driven by statistics to a story organized by the changing hairstyles of the main character. Pulling from mystery, horror, realism, myth, and graphic novels, Nkweti showcases the complexity and vibrance of characters whose lives span Cameroonian and American cultures. A dazzling, inventive debut, Walking on Cowrie Shells announces the arrival of a superlative new voice

It takes a village some say -- Rain check at MomoCon -- The devil is a liar -- Night becomes us -- Schoolyard cannibal -- It just kills you inside -- The statistician's wife -- Dance the Fiya dance -- The living infinite -- Kinks