Kwani Trust is set to launch Liberian author Saah Millimono’s novel Boy Interrupted at the beginning of March.  Described by Helon Habila as ‘A searing, heartbreaking love story set in the civil war years in Liberia’, this anticipated novel was the 1^st Runner-up in the 2013 Kwani? Manuscript Project.

Millimono’s debut is a moving account of a boy’s life in a time of crisis, written in a voice Olufemi Terry has characterized as ‘unaffected, strong and fluent’.  To whet your appetite for this, we are delighted to be able to share here a new short story by Saah Millimono.  In ‘Chicken Fuss’ Millimono’s strong and unaffected voice again shines through, narrating a different young boy’s experience of war, as an unwelcome neighbour appears at his family home late at night and a fuss over a chicken becomes a question of life or death. 

Boy, Interrupted will be the second novel to publish in the Kwani? Manuscript Project series. Winning novel Kintu has been ‘literally flying off the shelf’ in Kampala following its publication last June, with author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi recently heralded as ‘one of the most fresh and important African writers’. 

Over the next month we will be working towards an exciting online launch event for Boy, Interrupted, with video footage from Monrovia, and the author in conversation with Hawa Jande Golakai, planned for release on publication day.  As another teaser for this, we are pleased to also be sharing video footage of what you missed (or were lucky enough to experience) when we launched Kintu in Kampala in collaboration with our friends Writivism and FEMRITE.

With the next titles in the series Nikhil Singh’s Taty Went West and Ayobami Adebayo’s Stay with Me getting ready to follow this Spring, there is lots to look forward to in 2015.  Watch this space for more ‘coming soon’.