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The Librarian at the International School recommended Petina Gappah‘s short stories to me and for a number of reasons, I can pass on the recommendation. It is always a great pleasure to hear that we have another gifted writer in Geneva. Petina Gappah lives here and works as counsel in a Geneva organisation that provides legal aid on international trade law to developing countries.

The hauntingly beautiful cover of the Faber edition is a second reason that made this work irresistible, together with the accolade by J. M. Coetzee, ‘Petina Gappah is a fine writer and a rising star of Zimbabwean literature.’

My strongest reason for recommending this collection of short stories is the way that she brings alive the current world of the people inhabiting Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe’s regime.

We meet street children, a mad woman who would sell her services for 20 cents, a disillusioned wife, desperate for a child, a student who has been sectioned after an attempted suicide and a family who have given all they have to educate a wastrel in London. With them, we wait at the airport for his body when he has died in London. Petina Gappah’s stories touch on all aspects of Zimbabwean life finding vitality in the most degraded victims of a harsh regime.

The people come alive for us with tragedy and humour and a frightening view of the extreme poverty of the townships and the struggles to survive when a community is razed. I cannot recommend this delightful volume highly enough.

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