The Newlyweds’ Window

The Newlywed’s Window is a beautiful compilation of short stories from Africa’s most promising writers. The writers do a wonderful job of describing the setting and characters of their stories and although each story is fairly short, I found myself engaged in each and every one of them. Mukana Press has done a fabulous job of collecting and publishing these short stories. There are twelve stories in all.

I found each story to be so unique. In “Border Control”, a young woman delivers her baby in a private hospital, however, the nurses treat her so roughly and violently that she finds herself in the most unimaginable pain ever. My heart went out to this young woman and the ending is quite shocking. In “Gasping for Air”, the main character is a man who steals eyes. Although this was gruesome to think of, the author wrote with such beautiful prose that it was easy to want to keep reading. “Mareba’s Tavern” is about a woman who is a single mother by choice as she does not want to be owned by a man. Mareba runs a tavern that is already on the same compound as her house and is a very independent woman who can hold her own. I loved the strength she held even when the drunk men would heckle her. In “Black Paw Paw”, a fifteen-year-old girl struggles to find a life outside of the poverty she knows. She takes care of a baby for a woman she calls Madam and when proposed with the unthinkable, makes a life decision that will lead to the rest of her life. I think my favorite story in the book was “Our Girl Bimpe” which is about a girl who ends up putting something that happened at a party on social media and finding herself being ostracized for the world to see. This is proof that it is not only in America that social media can be a dangerous tool that can affect one’s life and the lives around them. Although I was rooting for Bimpe, she kept making stupid choices.

Although the stories are written in English, I enjoyed learning African words as many of the stories included some African dialogue. I also loved the unique names of the characters. These are names that are not heard very often in the States and it was nice to learn about the African culture outside of the war and poverty we often associate with the country.

Overall, The Newlywed’s Window is a book that any adult would enjoy. The stories are creative and come from some brilliant minds.