I am the Mau and other stories
Publisher: Fremantle Press
Published: August 2023
Genre: Short stories
I am the Mau and other stories by Chemutai Glasheen is a collection of well-crafted and engaging short stories that skilfully combines experiences common to many young people with the nuances and complexity of Kenyan life, culture and history.
There is, for example, Kembo, who lands ‘on his face, on the dusty tarmac bleached grey in the sun’ after being hit in the back of the head by school bullies. He eventually arrives home to check on his chronically ill mother before heading to a neighbour’s to undertake odd jobs. Twins Yared and Zuri worry about their parents arguing but are about to find themselves with far greater worries due to their family’s Rwandan ancestry. Jenga wants to tell a girl ‘how beautiful she looked on that day and every day’, while also dealing with his brother’s crooked politics. Kenisha is caught shoplifting and locked in a storeroom, where she meets two children who have no home or family to care for them. And in the titular story, the first-person narrator and his community ‘whose life was nestled in the Mau’ are about to lose everything to outsiders who want to ‘make way for what they call development’.
Glasheen draws readers into characters’ lives from the first paragraph of each story, often beginning in media res. She makes effective use of description and dialogue and consistently ends on just the right moment. Rather than wrapping up a story too neatly, she leaves the reader to fill in the gaps and imagine what might happen next. Readers will find points of connection with the young protagonists of individual stories, while as a whole, the collection offers an insight into the rich diversity within a community. I am the Mau and other stories would be a valuable addition to any high school English curriculum, where readers will relate to numerous characters and situations, while also developing empathy for those whose lives may differ from their own.
An assured and accomplished debut for young adult readers.