A Life Elsewhere.A Life Elsewhere By Segun Afolabi [pounds sterling]11.99 Jonathan Cape ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m : 0-2240-7602-7 Winner of the 2005 Caine Prize for African Writing, for the characters in Segun Afolabi's debut collection, 'elsewhere' is a place they must transform into home. The Far East, Europe, the Americas, Africa--the stories are as varied as their geographical settings. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the award-winning story Monday Morning, a refugee boy puzzles out his place in a new land. A bereaved be·reaved adj. Suffering the loss of a loved one: the bereaved family. n. One or those bereaved: The bereaved has entered the church. father in Arithmetic thinks back to a confusing con·fuse v. con·fused, con·fus·ing, con·fus·es v.tr. 1. a. To cause to be unable to think with clarity or act with intelligence or understanding; throw off. b. , youthful sexual encounter that has left him emotionally scarred scar 1 n. 1. A mark left on the skin after a surface injury or wound has healed. 2. A lingering sign of damage or injury, either mental or physical: ; Jacinta faces a long retirement with a husband she is not sure she likes in Jumbo jum·bo n. pl. jum·bos An unusually large person, animal, or thing. adj. Unusually large: jumbo shrimp; a jumbo jet. and Jacinta and The Wine Guitar tells the story of an aging musician who pays a prostitute prostitute n. a person who receives payment for sexual intercourse or other sexual acts, generally as a regular occupation. Although usually a prostitute refers to a woman offering sexual favors to men, male prostitutes may perform homosexual acts for money or for the gift of her youth. These are tales of the Diaspora, of people making their lives in new lands, some for the first time, others in the second or third generations. Often moving, sometimes funny and occasionally shocking, Afolabi's stories reflect the way we live now; exploring the universal need to establish family and identity in a world where the boundaries of geography, culture and language are increasingly fluid. Afolabi's elegantly restrained prose and his fascination with the internal emotional lives of his characters--the often painful negotiation of relationships and navigation of life's uncertainties--mark him as a highly original and engaging new literary voice. |
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