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Sefi Atta. News from Home. Northampton, Massachusetts: Interlink Publishing Group, Incorporation, 2010. 293 pp.
Sefi Atta is a master storyteller and griot. The short story collection News from Home is the commencement of a new genre of storytelling which does not adhere to the traditional British canon. There is the distinct genre of the African novel, and now there is the distinct genre of the African short story. Sefi Atta abides in two worlds. The stories of the women in her works relate the conflicting experiences and roles of African women at home and in America. This may result from the fact that the author, Atta, is Bi-Continental in the truest sense of the term. She has a physical residence in Mississippi, but she retains her psychological residency in Nigeria.
News from Home beckons you to become immersed in the worlds of different Nigerian women. Some characters are dependent. Other characters are self-reliant. All of the women face challenges which are universally indigenous to women. In the selection "Hailstones on Zamfara," an abused and battered wife is charged with adultery. The punishment for such a crime is stoning. The wife is...