Featured Image photo courtesy of Mandana-r at en.wikipedia A Short Story by Fereshteh Rostami We’re pleased to introduce a new voice from Iran to our international Coffee Club membership. Fereshteh Rostami’s native language is Persian, but she wrote this transcendent story in English . . . with a little editorial help from her husband. “Does Not Want the Hill to Die” is a very contemporary narrative, yet one which explores some of the oldest and most fundamental issues humans confront: the nature of life, the delicacy of our relationships with other people, and our responsibility to the land on which we live. Does Not Want the Hill to Die Forestgirl knows that she is gnawed bit by bit; not just her, everything, from the time she was a little girl, she knew. That time things…
“True Home and A Bottle of Champagne” by Samuel Ekanem
As the only human figure in the void corridor, Inem Ikang paused and wondered at her shadow, cast on the corridor walls – the corridor her only possible passage, its walls made of plywood. She had never imagined this: someone casting shadows in the absence of light. And so she started to dance, her body moving slowly, side to side, until the shadows made clearer semblances of her and she was sure they were not spirits. By the time her heart started to bang inside of her, she stopped dancing and craned her neck around the corridor, searching for light. But then she realised that there’s usually no light when there’s darkness. She moved closer to the wall and caressed the shadows with both hands. The feelings awed her – the wall feeling doughy like half-baked bread. She caressed and caressed, and…