Whenever you buy a book from our online store, we may make a small commission which supports our work. Visit our online store here.
Novels are often my first reading choice. I like to spend time with characters, getting invested in their lives, watching them grow, change, and even die (no matter how painful it is). But every reader knows that reading a novel requires commitment which, these days, with how fast-paced and image-driven our world has become, is harder to manage. If, like me, you occasionally find it difficult to commit to novels, short stories might be just what you need.
In our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of short story collections to read when you can’t commit to novels. From a book that depicts the complexities and loneliness of immigrant life to another that encapsulates the ‘Nigerian weird’, the collections on this list are perfect reads between novels.
Read our recommendations below:
elsewhere, home
author: leila aboulela
Genre: fiction
In the thirteen stories that make up this 2018 collection, Leila Aboulela explores the complexities of displacement, identity and belonging among immigrant communities. From the story of a young woman who embarks on a painful journey down memory lane after running into a former classmate from her younger years in Khartoum to the story of the young Sudanese student in Aberdeen whose need for connection pushes her into an unlikely relationship with a Scottish man, the stories in this ‘beautiful and desolate’ collection are full of homesickness and immigrant loneliness.
what it means when a man falls from the sky
AUTHOR: lesley nneka arimah
GENRE: fiction
Desperate for a child in a women-only world where children are made from earthly materials, a woman weaves one out of hair and quickly learns why this is a taboo. Three women from three different generations are haunted by the ghosts of a past war. When a man falls from the sky in a dystopia world ravaged by the effects of climate change, scientists discover a dangerous flaw in an equation they thought was perfect.
The stories in this 2017 debut by Lesley Nneka Arimah’s blends fantasy with contemporary fiction. The result are stories that are both specific to Nigerian and immigrant experiences while addressing universal themes of family, identity and survival.
rain and other stories
authOR: mia couto
GENRE: fiction
Published two years after the 15-year Mozambican civil war, this short story collection ‘seeks out the places violence could not reach’. The stories in this collection grapple with fundamental questions of what has been lost and what can be reclaimed, examining what future exists for a country that broke free from colonial rule only to endure brutal internal conflict. In them, you will meet fishermen, fortune-tellers, widows, cross-dressers and more, as Couto masterfully blends playful comedy with surprising plot twists and magical events.
Cassava Republic Press is proud to announce the launch of their inaugural $20,000 Global Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize dedicated to exceptional works by Black women. Deadline: 30th June 2024. Learn more here.
caged ocean dub
AUTHOR: dare segun falowo
GENRE: fiction
Writer of the ‘Nigerian weird’, Dare Segun Falowo, stuns with his debut collection, Caged Ocean Dub. Falowo blends supernatural elements with folklore and contemporary Nigerian experiences. The stories in this collection draw strongly from Nigerian community life while steeping them in the supernatural. This explains why, for example, there are dragons in Lagos and witches who wear their sons’ skins.
With language that sings like poetry and jaw-dropping plot twists, Falowo displays incredible control over his craft, earning himself comparisons to both Edgar Allan Poe and Franz Kafka.
the quarter
Author: naguib mahfouz
Genre: fiction
In this posthumously discovered and published collection, Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz departs from his signatory realism to tell Sufi-inspired stories that blend fantasy with folklore, creating a mystical portrait of neighbourhood life. Like much of Mahfouz work, it centres around a Cairo neighbourhood, in this case, the Gamaliya quarter, inhabited by demons, dancing, and sweet halva, where residents are both gritty and otherworldly.
We meet characters like Nabqa, the son of a water seller who can never tell a lie and Tawhida, beautiful and talented, whom time never ages. In this collection, we see Mahfouz’s more experimental and fantastical side.
manchester happened
AUTHOR: jennifer nansubuga makumbi
GENRE: fiction
In 12 ‘vibrant, kaleidoscopic stories’, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi presents the experiences of Ugandan emigrants navigating life between two worlds: Manchester, UK and Uganda. Split into two sections, ‘Departing’ and ‘Returning’, the book chronicles the efforts of Ugandan immigrant to make a better life for themselves in the UK as well as the experiences of those who return to Uganda after years abroad.
Described as ‘an ambitious and assured collection’, Manchester Happened masterfully captures the ‘here-and-there double consciousness’ of living between Uganda and England, showing how characters navigate two very different worlds—the busy UK city of Manchester and the sprawling, chaotic capital of Uganda.
minutes of glory and other stories
authOR: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
GENRE: fiction
Though mostly known for his novels and plays, late Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o was also a master of the short form, as demonstrated by his 2019 short story collection, Minutes of Glory and Other Stories. The stories in this collection span the period of British colonial rule in Kenya and the resistance to it, as well as the tumultuous experience of independence.
In these stories, we meet a diverse cast of characters, including women fighting against patriarchy, corrupt politician who took power from the British and even rebels fighting for the liberation of the working people. Underlying these stories, which span many decades, is a sustained critique of colonialism and its continued effects⎈
