An Elegy for Easterly
by Petina Gappah
In this debut collection of short stories, Petina Gappah dissects the lives of people caught up in situations over which they have no control
In this debut collection of short stories, Petina Gappah dissects the lives of people caught up in situations over which they have no control, harking to her day job as an international lawyer. They deal with spiralling inflation, power cuts and financial hardships, all under the Mugabe regime in modern day Zimbabwe.
A woman in a township in Zimbabwe is surrounded by throngs of dusty children but longs for a baby of her own; an old man finds that his job making coffins at No Matter Funeral Parlour brings unexpected riches; a politician's widow quietly stands by at her husband's funeral watching his colleagues bury an empty coffin. Petina Gappah's characters may have ordinary hopes and dreams, but they are living in a world where a loaf of bread costs half a million dollars; a country expected to have only four presidents in a hundred years; and a place where people know exactly what will be printed in the one and only daily newspaper because the news is always, always good.
In her spirited debut collection, Zimbabwean author Petina Gappah brings us the resilience and inventiveness of the people who struggle to live under Robert Mugabe's regime whilst also battling issues common to all people everywhere: failed promises, unfulfilled dreams and the yearning for something to anchor them to life.
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