Manchester Happened
by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
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Pub Date May 23 2019 | Archive Date Mar 27 2019
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Description
An ambitious and assured collection of short stories from the internationally acclaimed author of Kintu
If there's one thing the characters in Jennifer Makumbi's stories know, it's how to field a question.
'Let me buy you a cup of tea... what are you doing in England?'
'Do these children of yours speak any Luganda?'
'Did you know that man Idi Amin?'
But perhaps the most difficult question of all is the one they ask themselves: 'You mean this is England?'
Told with empathy, humour and compassion, these vibrant, kaleidoscopic stories re-imagine the journey of Ugandans who choose to make England their home. Weaving between Manchester and Kampala, this dazzling, polyphonic collection will captivate anyone who has ever wondered what it means to truly belong.
Advance Praise
Praise for Kintu:
‘Inventive in scope, masterful in execution, [Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi] does for Ugandan literature what Chinua Achebe did for Nigerian writing.’ Guardian
‘A multi-character epic that emphatically lives up to its ambition.’ Sunday Times
‘A soaring and sublime epic. One of those great stories that was just waiting to be told.’ Marlon James, Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781786075895 |
| PRICE | £14.99 (GBP) |
Featured Reviews
Sue B, Reviewer
A collection of 12 short stories, divided into two sections - one half concentrating on Ugandans’ experiences in Britain, specifically Manchester, and the other on Ugandans returning to Uganda after some years away. Some characters feature several times, the main one being Poonah - a delightful creation with a subtle, wry take on life - and the stories involving her are my favourites.
The stories are political with a light, unchallenging touch, particularly so where the colonial British legacy in Uganda is concerned. One entire story, though, ‘My brother, Bwemage’, is concerned with recent Chinese involvement in Uganda, its economic and social ramifications.
The author writes in a cool, unfaltering style that engaged me straightaway. She presents her characters’ experiences and dilemmas with insight and delicacy, and the final sentences of many of the stories are especially poignant. There is a deal of Ugandan vocabulary in the dialogue with no translation into English - I didn’t find it difficult to understand what was meant and I think it often gave a sense of the vibrancy of Ugandan family life - some of the dialogue is priceless. An entertaining collection that introduced me to a country, the people who left it and those who returned, and a culture that I knew little about. I’d recommend it highly.
Greg Y, Reviewer
This is a collection of short stories from Ugandan writer Jennifer Makumbi about the experiences of (mostly) women emigrating from Africa to live in Manchester, and the struggles that they encounter immersed in a foreign culture. The stories in the second half of the book deal with emigrants returning home to find that they no longer quite fit in Uganda either.
These stories reminded me very much of Junot Diaz, in that Makumbi is adept at immersing the reader in the language and culture of an ethnic enclave living in a foreign city. Like Diaz, she has some recurring characters that she builds a narrative arc for across different stories. The collection is carefully put together and shines quite a different light on the emigrant experience.
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