A debut story collection shows author s expertise: Walking on Cowrie Shells, by Nana Nkweti dailypress.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailypress.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Walking On Cowrie Shells, Nana Nkweti s debut book of short stories, walks an impressive tightrope between laugh-out-loud comedy and breathtaking profundity. A Cameroonian American, Nkweti is a Caine Prize finalist and alumna of the Iowa Writers Workshop. Her book covers a range of subjects and geography, all within a brief 180 pages, illustrated with occasional photographs and drawings that amplify the stories. It Takes a Village Some Say opens the collection. The story follows a Cameroonian girl given up by her family for the opportunity to grow up in America. The girl s adoptive family, also Cameroonian, satirizes American upward mobility. They enroll their daughter in every activity, spoiling her in a consumer frenzy that does not end well. Volume I of the story is narrated by the adoptive mother We did our best by Our Girl, who was imported from the motherland.