num_pages: 176
description: A virtuosic debut collection that roves across genres and styles by a finalist for the Caine PrizeIn her powerful genre-bending debut story collection Nana Nkwetis 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 pastors wife struggles with the collision of western Christianity and her mothers 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 theres 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.
language: English
title: Walking on Cowrie Shells: Stories
publisher: Graywolf Press