Africa 39

This is a collection with a rich African pedigree – edited by Zimbabwean literary critic – Ellah Allfrey with an introduction from another Grandfather of African Literature, Wole Soyinka. It features 39 authors from the continent who were under the age of 40 at the time of publication in 2014. I love this collection for many reasons, mostly because it is a celebration of the work of some of the continents young and new literary voices and a number of them were taken from existing or forthcoming novels as in this one from Ethiopian author Dinaw Mengestu taken from the novel All Our Names:

Weeks, months, and then years went by. People dreamed of living on the moon and the sun. They dreamed of castles built on clouds, of children who never cried , and while they dreamed each night their king erased a part of the city. A park disappeared in the middle of the night. A hill that had the best view over the city soon vanished. Streets and then homes were erased before dawn. Soon the people who complained about the changes were missing.