“A Life Elsewhere” is the title
of Segun Afolabi’s debut collection of short stories, which seems to reflect
Segun Afolabi’s transitory childhood, as the son of a diplomat. The characters
in Segun’s stories regard ‘elsewhere’ as a place that they must transform into
home. Like Segun’s childhood, the stories have a variety of settings: the Far
East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. In “Monday Morning”, the story that won
Segun Afolabi the 2005 Caine Prize, a refugee boy puzzles out his place in a
foreign land. In “The Wine Guitar”, an old musician pays a prostitute for the
gift of her youth… And in Segun Afolabi’s first published story, “Jumbo and
Jacinta”, Jacinta faces retirement with a husband that she is not sure that she
likes. The publishers of “A Life Elsewhere” have informed us that the story
“Gifted” from "A Life Elsewhere" also appeared in "Granta 92: The
View From Africa", which was reviewed by Maya Jaggi in "The
Guardian". She said of
‘Gifted’ that it is “a remarkably delicate portrayal of a mother living
guiltily with violence.” To find out more about the author, you can visit our Segun Afolabi page.
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