Aerogrammes and Other Stories
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Tania James
Random House India
192 pages, R399
A collection of short stories set in locales as varied as London, Sierra Leone and the American Midwest. A turn-of-the-century Indian wrestler arrives in London desperate to prove himself champion of the world, only to find the city mysteriously absent of challengers. A gifted dance instructor falls victim to her own vanity when a student competition allows her a final encore. And a woman from Ohio takes in the illegitimate child her husband left behind in Sierra Leone, as well as an orphaned chimpanzee, who comes to anchor this strange new family. James introduces us to a host of delicate, complicated characters who find themselves separated from their families and communities by race, pride and grief.
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