Fiction

By Richard Oduor Oduku

• Title: Smithereens of Death
• Author: Olubunmi Familoni
• Publisher: WriteHouse Collective, Ibadan, Nigeria
• Number of pages: 124
• Year of publication: 2015
• Category: Fiction

‘Life is about death; tiny pieces of dying… but when the last piece has been peeled away, the grief that remains is an open sore on the hearts of those left behind – you cannot cover it with anything, with living … It will not heal tomorrow, or the day after …’ (‘A Rain of Many Things’, p 88)

 Life is inherently devoid of meaning. Like Jean-Paul Sartre would say, it is up to man to find meaning for himself. The inherent meaninglessness does not equal doom and depression. Rather, it opens up doors of possibilities and feeds the idea that we earn our freedom by finding ourselves and creating our own meanings. Existentialism lies at the heart of Smithereens of Death. In this collection of short stories, the characters create their own sense of purpose because of the failure of externalities – God and society – to provide one. More…

By Redscar McOdindo K’Oyuga

• Title: Kovu Moyoni
• Author: John Habwe
• Publisher: Bookmark Africa
• Number of pages: 154
• Year of publication: 2014
• Category: Fiction

Kovu Moyoni (translates loosely as ‘Scar in the Heart’) is a Kiswahili novel based on a series of land clashes in an imaginary village that witnesses the same wrangles as befell the Mt Elgon area of Kenya from 2005 to 2008. The intriguing story is set in the fictional village of Siloko, in a post-independence nation called Tandika. What strikes the reader is how John Habwe expertly documents the intellectual, economic, social and spiritual emptiness of life in contemporary African nations. More…

By Tinuke Adeyi

• Title: Terra Incognita: New Short Speculative Stories from Africa
• Editor: Nerine Dorman
• Publisher: Short Story Day Africa
• Number of pages: 278
• Year of publication: 2015
• Category: Fiction

If, according to Rachel Zadok, the survival ethos of the publishers of the anthology Terra Incognita: New Short Speculative Stories from Africa is to ‘reclaim a place for non-conformist writing’ and ‘subvert ideas about what it means to be a writer in Africa’, the anthology unapologetically declares they are here to not only survive but to blaze an exciting new trail. The small but rapidly expanding cult of enthusiasts of African speculative fiction – with all of her freak children, including futuristic tales, science fiction, stories of the supernatural and fantasy fiction – will find this third and latest result of the annual Short Story Day Africa Prize difficult to put down. More…

By Emeka Ugwu

• Title: True Citizen
• Author: Oduor Jagero
• Publisher: KoaMedia
• Number of pages: 248
• Year of publication: 2014
• Category: Fiction

‘The street hadn’t changed. And I was raised on these streets, on kindness and loot’. – Roots in the Sky, Akin Adesokan.

‘A slum is not a chaotic collection of structures; it is a dynamic collection of individuals who have figured out how to survive in the most adverse of circumstances’. – Rediscovering Dharavi, Kalpana Sharma.

Nairobi, popularly known as ‘Green City in the Sun’, is both the largest city in and capital of Kenya. Nairobi is also home to the headquarters of UN-Habitat as well as an estimated two hundred slums and squatter settlements. It seems the perfect setting for Oduor Jagero’s pulsating, satirical thriller, True Citizen. More…

By Tọ́pẹ́ Salaudeen-Adégòkè

• Title: The Pyramid of Askia Burtune
• Author: Aminu Hamajoda
• Publisher: Fasihan Nigeria Limited
• Number of pages: 290
• Year of publication: 2014
• Category: Fiction

The print-on-demand book on Amazon by Aminu Hamajoda can be said with considerable justification, if assessed by the raisons d’être of creativity, fluidity of narration and sublimity of subject matter, to be an example of a bad book that is not worthy of space on anybody’s bookshelf or anybody’s time for that matter. More…

By Dami Ajayi

• Title: The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician
• Author: Tendai Huchu
• Publisher: ‘amaBooks
• Number of pages: 273
• Year of publication: 2014
• Category: Fiction

Zimbabwean writer, Tendai Huchu’s second book, a novel, is called The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician, a rather mouthful title that enjoys the playful alliteration of a recalcitrant poet. More…