Book Description
The life and times of a war hero who discovers the oddities of the world and returns to declare his own form of independence... An inveterate chancer and drunk gives a command performance as he outwits his boss... Sensation grips Malawi as a homosexual caught in the act takes a righteous stand... A sister and brother discover the world of wealth and expectation that separates their lives in Senegal and the US... A severed leg in a tree leads a maverick investigator down the darkest of trails... The shortlisted stories for the 2012 Caine Prize - Africa's leading literary prize - offer five memorable snapshots of life on the African continent in all its diversity. In addition, ten writers from six different African countries took part in the Caine Prize Writers' Workshop, held this year in South Africa, where they each produced a special story for this volume. These fifteen stories show yet again the richness and range of current writing on the continent. They underline the primacy of the short story, with its oral antecedents, at the very heart of African literature.