Greetings, once again! 👋🏽
I hope you are doing well and taking good care of yourself.
Welcome to another edition of this newsletter.
I bring you yet another short story review. This one is by an author I discovered a few months ago. Published in 2022, it is the author’s sixth book.
Set in a small West African country during the slave trade, this 35-page short story is about a young girl’s search for her brother after they were kidnapped and separated.
We Are Bone & Earth is the fourth book in a collection of seven that make up A Point in Time, a range of stories exploring the past, life-changing experiences, and irreversible decisions that make the difference between before and after.
The year is 1779 and Sisi has been searching for her brother, Yao, among the captives who pour out of every new caravan at the fort for five years now, where she has been working as a maid and a translator for the foreigners.
Due to her understanding of different languages, she was spared the misfortune of children brought into the fort as collateral for their father’s debts. They are fed and housed for 6 weeks, after which, should the debt remain unpaid, they are beaten mercilessly and shipped off, never to be seen again. Pawns, they called them.
When Sisi sees someone she recognizes among the captives, she is forced to think about how it seemed like a lifetime ago when they used to play together and watch the caravans of captives go by, and now they were captives themselves, the fate of her brother unknown.
“We felt nothing, neither pity nor sorrow, seeing such captives. We had seen them all our lives, those caught up in wars with Dahomey.”
Sisi then narrates how her family was torn apart. Her mother died, and her brother, fascinated by a warrior’s weapon he had seen earlier in the day, had snuck out at night to see it again, while their father slept. She followed him, they got caught and were taken prisoners for stealing.
“…anything can be taken abruptly and a life can be changed.”
I liked the author’s writing style and I will definitely be reading more of her books.
Have you read this book? What did you think about it? Kindly leave a comment.
If you read this book after reading this review, do come back and share 😊