Product Description

In her fiction debut, Doreen Baingana follows a Ugandan girl as she navigates the uncertain terrain of adolescence. Set mostly in pastoral Entebbe with stops in the cities Kampala and Los Angeles, depicts the reality of life for Christine Mugisha and her family after Idi Amins dictatorship.

Three of the eight chapters are told from the point of view of Christines two older sisters, Patti, a born-again Christian who finds herself starving at her boarding school, and Rosa, a free spirit who tries to magically seduce one of her teachers. But the star of is Christine, whom we accompany from her first wobbly steps in high heels, to her encounters with the first-world conveniences and alienation of America, to her return home to Uganda.

As the Mugishas cope with Ugandas collapsing infrastructure, they also contend with the universal themes of family cohesion, sex and relationships, disease, betrayal, and spirituality. Anyone dipping into Bainganas incandescent, widely acclaimed novel will enjoy their immersion in the world of this talented newcomer.

*Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book in the Africa region

*Winner of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Award Series in Short Fiction

*Winner of the Washington Writing Prize for Short Fiction

*Finalist for the Caine Prize in African Writing