“There are many ways of breaking a heart. Stories were full of hearts being broken by love, but what really broke a heart was taking away its dreamwhatever that dream might be.” – Pearl Sydenstricker Buck “You have achieved what you wanted,” the email began, just like that, with neither the introduction of the author […]
I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen (USA)
I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron. “I wish you would manage the time to come in and talk with me about your daughter. I’m sure you can help me understand her. She’s a youngster who needs help and whom I’m deeply interested in helping.” […]
Sandra Street by Michael Anthony (Trinidad)
Mr. Blades, the new teacher, was delighted with the composition we wrote about Sandra Street. He read some aloud to the class. He seemed particularly pleased when he read what was written by one of the boys from the other side of the town. “Sandra Street is dull and uninteresting,” the boy wrote. “For one […]
Arrested Development by Sandisile Tshuma (Zimbabwe)
I have been standing at Max‘s garage for almost three hours trying to hitch a ride to Beit bridge. I am not the only one here though; there must be at least fifty people, maybe even a hundred. Or more, I do not know, whatever; it is hot and I am tired. The point […]
The Mirror by Haruki Murakami (Japan)
All the stories you have been telling tonight seem to fall into two categories. There is the type where you have the world of the living on one side, the world of the dead on the other, and some force that allows for crossing over from one side to the other. This would include ghosts […]
The War of the Ears by Moses Isegawa (Uganda)
Beeda stood on the school veranda and watched the last pupils disappear down the road. He thought of this as the road swallowed the pupils. The day’s climax, a question- and- answer session, came back to him and he heard his voice rise to fill the classroom: “What is twelve times five?” “Sixty,” the pupils […]
The Guilt by Rayda Jacobs ( South Africa)
)The Guilt by Rayda Jacobs ( South Africa) Lilian Thurgood was busy picking guavas at the side of the house when she heard the growling of the Alsatians on the stoep. Just a low growl telling her that someone had stopped at the gate. Perhaps it was the postman, she thought, dropping something into her […]
Story No: 3 Leaving by Moyez G. Vassanji (Tanzania
Moyez G. Vassanji M.G. Vassanji, writer, editor (b at Nairobi, Kenya 30 May 1950). M.G. Vassanji grew up in Kenya and Tanzania, and was educated at MIT and the University of Pennsylvania. Having immigrated to Canada in 1978 with a PhD in nuclear physics, Vassanji began writing fiction while teaching at the UNIVERSITY OF TORONT
“When the Sun Goes Down” by Goro wa Kamau (Kenya)
Steve was aware of the people’s eyes on him as he passed. They stood on the verandas of the little shops with peeling paint and pretended to be engrossed in their chitchat but he could feel the piercing gaze of their eyes like so many fires on his body. But he did not care; by […]
Study guide of when the sun goes Down” By Goro wa Kamau
“Study guide of when the sun goes Down” By Goro wa Kamau The Guilt, Rayda Jacobs (South Africa) a. Introduction We meet Mrs. Lilian Thurgood at the side of her house picking guavas. Her two dogs: Tembi and Tor alert her of somebody‟s presence at her gate. She is not a very strong woman; she […]