num_pages: 13
description: A short story nominated for the Caine Prize in African Literature 2016 first published in Johns Hopkins University's prestigious literary magazine Callaloo in 2015.A young boy's parents emigrate from Nigeria to the less-than-obvious destination of Utah where the father receives a mechanical engineering degree but is (surprise surprise) unable to find a job. He moves his family now with two sons to the smaller city of Bountiful Utah where he located a job as an auto mechanic.This less-than-perfect idyll is defined by the slow descent of the boys' mother into insanity sometimes violently directed at her husband sometimes violently directed at her oldest son. Told from the oldest son's PoV this is a heart-wrenching story of lost identity broken promises and shattered dreams.
language: English
title: Genesis
publisher: Callaloo Magazine