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Inside Harare Alcatraz and Other Short Stories
Inside Harare Alcatraz and Other Short Stories | Andrew Chatora
5 posts | 3 read
''Inside Harare Alcatraz and Other Short Stories affords Andrew Chatora to tell his story with more urgency than before. Chatora roars into centre stage with this charmed confluence of the novella, the essay, the treatise, the short story and the vignette. Here is a collection to startle you out of your complacency.''--Memory Chirere, University of ZimbabweIn his fourth literary offering, Andrew Chatora gives us eleven stories written in a wide range of settings and painting the lives of Zimbabweans from different walks of life. From the impenetrable Harare prison to the working class Mutare and its domain of shebeen queens to suburban Harare and a politically charged United Kingdom in a post Brexit world, Chatora takes the reader on a grand tour of outrage. Notwithstanding the shifts in scene and setting, these stories have one pervasive theme in common - they capture the suffocation and desperation of Zimbabwe and her Diaspora and fully describe the precariousness of living in environments that are increasingly hostile."Inside Harare Alcatraz and Other Short Stories" transcends the grass is never greener perspective with a nuanced interrogation of the socio-political realities of its characters. Chatora fashions a diverse cast of characters whose complexities and eccentricities evoke the utmost in us.
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peta1986
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I really fancied the premise of this even though short stories isn't a genre I read a lot from.
It didn't disappoint.
The stories included were just long enough to develop into a good story, introduce characters, situations and give a satisfactory conclusion which isn't always the case with short stories.
They were quite a powerful read and were very political and morally conscious in tone, dealing in depth with current and relevant social issues.

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lazydaizee
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These stories will take you right out of your comfort zone. Please click on the link to read my review.
https://hubpages.com/literature/new-books-for
#fiction
#newbooks
#zimbabwe
#britain

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Bookwomble
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Bailedbailed

As I received this book as a review copy, I tried really hard to like it, or at least to read it to the end, but ultimately I couldn't wade through it and bailed at 25%.

The subject matter of political corruption and systemic oppression are things I'm interested in reading about, but try as I did to ignore the "idiosyncratic" vocabulary, grammar and syntax, it was too prominent an issue for me to get past. ⬇️

Bookwomble So, 4 for intention, 1 for style, round it up to be generous, and it's 3 stars for what I read, but that was enough. 3mo
dabbe #hailthebail! 🖤🩶🖤 3mo
Bookwomble @dabbe The author had written a really sweet inscription on the fly leaf, and I do feel rather bad about not giving it a more positive review, but, 'tis what it is 🫤🤷🏻‍♂️ 3mo
dabbe @Bookwomble A good, honest review is what the author was looking for, and your comments are so insightful that it should help him. 😎 3mo
38 likes4 comments
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Bookwomble
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I just received this through a Library Thing Early Reviewers giveaway ?
I'm happy & grateful to receive it, but being a mood reader who also has some idea of what I want from my next few books, I struggle to engage with "obligation reads". All that aside...
These are short stories by a Zimbabwean author resident in Britain, dealing with experiences in his country of origin & in the Zimbabwean diaspora. Writing this I'm warming to my reading task!