In her fiction debut, Doreen Baingana follows a Ugandan girl as she navigates the uncertain terrain of adolescence. Set mostly in pastoral Entebbe with stops in the cities Kampala and Los Angeles, Tropical Fish depicts the reality of life for Christine Mugisha and her family after Idi Amin’s dictatorship. Three of the eight chapters are told from the point of view of Christine’s two older sisters, Patti, a born-again Christian who finds herself starving at her boarding school, and Rosa, a free spirit who tries to “magically” seduce one of her teachers. But the star of Tropical Fish is Christine, whom we accompany from her first wobbly steps in high heels, to her encounters with the first-world conveniences and alienation of America, to her return home to Uganda. As the Mugishas cope with Uganda’s collapsing infrastructure, they also contend with the universal themes of family cohesion, sex and relationships, disease, betrayal, and spirituality. Anyone dipping into Baingana’s incandescent, widely acclaimed novel will enjoy their immersion in the world of this talented newcomer. *Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in the Africa region *Winner of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Award Series in Short Fiction *Winner of the Washington Writing Prize for Short Fiction *Finalist for the Caine Prize in African Writing
In her fiction debut, Doreen Baingana follows a Ugandan girl as she navigates the uncertain terrain of adolescence. Set mostly in pastoral Entebbe with stops in the cities Kampala and Los Angeles, Tropical Fish depicts the reality of life for Christine Mugisha and her family after Idi Amin’s dictatorship. Three of the eight chapters are told from the point of view of Christine’s two older sisters, Patti, a born-again Christian who finds herself starving at her boarding school, and Rosa, a free spirit who tries to “magically” seduce one of her teachers. But the star of Tropical Fish is Christine, whom we accompany from her first wobbly steps in high heels, to her encounters with the first-world conveniences and alienation of America, to her return home to Uganda. As the Mugishas cope with Uganda’s collapsing infrastructure, they also contend with the universal themes of family cohesion, sex and relationships, disease, betrayal, and spirituality. Anyone dipping into Baingana’s incandescent, widely acclaimed novel will enjoy their immersion in the world of this talented newcomer. *Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in the Africa region *Winner of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Award Series in Short Fiction *Winner of the Washington Writing Prize for Short Fiction *Finalist for the Caine Prize in African Writing
The 2004 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, Brian Chikwava's "Seventh Street Alchemy" is featured alongside shortlisted stories from 2004, compositions from the Caine Prize's March 2005 Workshop for African Writers, and Charles Mungoshi's previously unpublished "Letter from a Friend" in this inspired collection of work from some of Africa's most promising young and new writers.
Proposing the novel concept of the "literary NGO," this study combines interviews with contemporary East African writers with an analysis of their professional activities and the cultural funding sector to make an original contribution to African literary criticism and cultural studies.
The 2004 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, Brian Chikwava's "Seventh Street Alchemy" is featured alongside shortlisted stories from 2004, compositions from the Caine Prize's March 2005 Workshop for African Writers, and Charles Mungoshi's previously unpublished "Letter from a Friend" in this inspired collection of work from some of Africa's most promising young and new writers.
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