The Connection (short story) – Gbolahan Badmus

A beautifully written story, though the characters have no names but with just a handful of them, it’s easy to keep up. Our short story month has spoiled me somewhat because all the reads (except the first one) are from Afreada ( http://afreada.com ), who have a wonderful line of short stories that I have

Walking Abyss (short story) – Ademola Enoch

It is amazing the number of things we take for granted. Our senses. Life. Our talents and gifts. I suppose it is a human flaw. It may not be what I have mentioned here but at some stage in our lives, we all take something for granted, even for just a moment. He is almost

Arese (short story) – Aishat Abiri

It was a different man she took home, he was withdrawn, smaller. She wanted to tease him about his nose hairs and how they always hang outside his nose. She wanted him to kiss her on her neck. She wanted so badly for everything to be like before. But no. Te’ele is a mother and a

Ugly (short story) – Edwin Madu

After reading not one but three bad short stories in a row, I was beginning to think I’m being punished for something I did in a past life. I called my sister in Bookish crime, B, and asked for a save – kindly offered in the form of https://afreada.com and I grabbed it with both

Be prepared (short story) – Maeve Binchy

I’ve never read a Maeve Binchy novel in my life! But I have read her short story called Be prepared. Nothing like a good, short, sharp, poignant story to recalibrate your thoughts on life, family and what’s most important in life. Just to tell you a bit about Maeve in case you’ve never heard of

Surprise Lunch (short story) – Gabrielle Lord

What a lovely little treat of a short story! The January edition of Woman & Home magazine had a little booklet entitled Summer Tides: A Collection of Short Stories, described thus: A warm, summery day and the blissful lure of a hammock of a beach towel – the perfect summer moment to indulge in this

Snapshots of a Wedding (short story) – Bessie Head

Weirdly enough, I haven’t read a short story since high school and had not seen any value in reading them, as is often said, we learn something new each day and my something new was a change in how I felt about short stories. Bessie Head’s Snapshots of a Wedding was published as far back

Same (short story) – Sihle Ntuli

Before I even dive into this review, I would like to flag the fact that Sihle Ntuli is an M.A candidate at the School of Languages and Literature at my alma mater, Rhodes University. Yay! Totes going to use this as my claim to fame going forward. Read Sihle’s bio on the AFREADA website here: https://afreada.com/2017/03/15/same-by-sihle-ntuli/

This is how it happened (short story) – Ope Adedeji (@opeeee_)

It’s been a while since I delved into the electric short stories that populate the AFREADA website and it makes me sad because those stories always, without fail, make my day. But not to worry, I managed to carve out 15 minutes to read their latest offering from Nigerian writer, Ope Adedeji. And how poetic