An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah

The stories in the collection by Petina Gappah are so brilliantly real, I vividly remember that they left me gasping internally when I first read them. Bringing Zimbabwean culture to life in the pages of this book, Ms. Gappah uses language that is at times comical and witty to illustrate the underlying similarities of human beings who, at the end of the day, are just trying to survive.

Our housemaid SisiDessy worshiped Rambanai and could not get enough of her stories. “America is the land of opportunity, SisiDessy,” Rambanai told her.  “There you can be anything you want, anything at all. Someone like you can be a housemaid today, and before you know it, you have your own TV show.”