Naija Stories: Of Tears and Kisses, Heroes and Villians

Here we are, with our abortions, our bereavement, our lust, our petty showdowns, our pederasts, our In-Law wahala, our problems chatting up girls in the diaspora, our memories of childhood, our fights, our incest, our love, our examination stress, our metafictional accounts, our encounters with university campus cults, our broken families, our … well, you get the idea. We rob banks, but we also eat salty beans to show our children we love them. - Tade Thompson (Writer/Editor) ___________ Someone once said that the one trait all writers have in common is that they watch for the extraordinary magic that lies in the everyday. This assertion comes alive in this maiden Naija Stories Anthology with the rich collection of short stories that touch on every aspect of our lives, from the topical issues of resource control agitation as seen in Visiting Admiral John Bull, to more lighthearted issues of wooing a lady as seen in One Sunday Morning in Atlanta, and everything in between. These are stories about us or about our neighbours or something we’ve encountered in the news. They are what our friends tell us, their pain and joy, their passion and rage, their yearning and their cry against injustice. I enjoyed lots of the stories not just because of their simplicity and brevity but also for freshness they bring to storytelling and public discourse. Sylva Nze Ifedigbo. Author, The Funeral Did Not End. ____________