The first volume of Doris Lessing's `Collected African Stories', and a classic work from the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Doris Lessing's Collected African Stories Series
This collection offers a profound exploration of childhood and adolescence on the African continent, delving into the complexities of colonialism and cultural encounters. The stories vividly capture the raw beauty of the African landscape, which acts as a powerful force shaping both the characters and their destinies. It thoughtfully examines themes of identity, alienation, and the search for meaning within a setting that is both majestic and unforgiving.
Recommended Reading Order
This much-acclaimed collection of stories vividly evokes both the grandeur of Africa, the glare of its sun and the wide open space, as well as the great, irresolvable tensions between whites and blacks. Tales of poor white farmers and their lonely wives, of storm air thick with locusts, of ants and pomegranate trees, black servants and the year of hunger in a native village - all combine to present a powerful image of a continent which seems incorruptible in spite of the people who plough, mine and plunder it to make their living. In Doris Lessing's own words, 'Africa gives you the knowledge that man is a small creature, among other creatures, in a large landscape.'