The Beauty Queen of Bonthe and Other Stories of West Africa (Paperback) by Gregory a Barnes

9781721926565. New condition. Trade paperback. Language: English. Pages: 196. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 196 p. The seven stories of this collection are all set during the early nineteen-sixties, a dynamic age of transition from colonial rule to independence. They show the complex lives of a diverse population: a villager fallen on hard times who laments the means by which he feeds his family; an expatriate couple confronting a headless staircase and their own existential crises; a leper who survives another day of beggary; a British colonial officer and a traditional chief both of whom fear a diminished status as they confront a dramatic change in their chiefdom; and of course the beautiful young Sierra Leonean who alarms her community by her drastic action.