Kwanini? Series
Weight of Whispers
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9966-7008-3-8
No. of pages: 74
Size of book: 135mm x 115mm
Price: Ksh 300 ($10)
Year of Publication: 2006
" The collection of teeth in the man’s mouth is a splendid brown. I have never seen such teeth before. Refusing all instruction, my eyes focus on dental contours and craters. Denuded of any superficial pretence; no braces, no fillings, no toothbrush, it is a place where small scavengers thrive.
Evidence! The man giggles. "
Yvonne Owuor won the 2003 Caine Prize with her evocative tale of a Rwandan aristocrat who fled to Kenya in the wake of the 1994 genocide. Characters in this tale come draped in the country’s history, wrapping the world’s dramas around the personal as they struggle to adjust to their lengthy fall from grace. Inthis story of exile and death, Owuor draws us a masterful portrait of the quest for light and life.
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor is a Kenyan fiction writer, conservationist, cultural activist; past Executive director of the Zanzibar International Film Festival. Yvonne Owuor won the 2003 Caine Prize for African Writing for “Weight of Whispers,” a story told from the perspective of a refugee fleeing after the 1994 massacres. Since then, a number of her other stories have been published, including “Dressing the Dirge,” “The State of Tides,” and “The Knife Grinder’s Tale.”
P. O. Box 2895-00100 Nairobi Kenya | Tel: +254 (0) 20 444 1801 | Cell: +254 (0) 704 832 379 | Fax:+254 020 4441802 | Email: info@kwani.org