God's Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu

Saturday, July 28, 2024--San Antonio

God's Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu, a collection of short stories set in Nigeria and a winner and/or finalist for several prizes, is a rather daring book considering each story is about queer love.  Nigeria is a very anti-queer country with frequent stories of government raids and mass arrests.  And these stories reflect those attitudes of the people and the government.  Characters love in secret and range from the poor living in villages to successful professionals in large cities.    When parents learn they have a son who is gay, they and their priest try to beat the gay out of him with palm fronds leaving lifelong scars on his back.  Parents in several stories can only think of themselves--being shamed and embarrassed, being upset that they will never have grandchildren, and disowning their child.  When a singer has a hit record, his manager sabotages the singer's gay relationship.  The book is a downer because of this lack of acceptance of queer life in Nigeria, but the stories are so well written that an empathetic reader will be pulled into them. The author is living in the US where he teaches at a university.  I doubt the book would have ever been published if he were living in Nigeria, and it is likely that he would be arrested if it had been.  Every one of the 9 short stories is a little masterpiece.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.