Gregory A. Barnes

The Beauty Queen of Bonthe and Other Stories of West Africa Gregory A. Barnes

The seven stories of this collection are all set during the early nineteen-sixties, a dynamic age of transition from colonial rule to independence. They show the complex lives of a diverse population: a villager fallen on hard times who laments the means by which he feeds his family; an expatriate couple confronting a headless staircase and their own existential crises; a leper who survives another day of beggary; a British colonial officer and a traditional chief both of whom fear a diminished status as they confront a dramatic change in their chiefdom; and of course the beautiful young Sierra Leonean who alarms her community by her drastic action.