- Paperback: 256 pages
- Published: 12/1/20
- IBSN: 9781617758898
- e-IBSN: 9781617758942
- Hardcover
- IBSN: 9781617759567
- Genre: Fiction
Catalog » Browse by Title: A » Accra Noir (Ghana)
Accra Noir (Ghana)
Accra joins Lagos, Nairobi, Marrakech, and Addis Ababa in representing the African continent in the Noir Series arena.
What people are saying…
“The anthology Accra Noir edited by Nana-Ama Danquah captures the hustle of several distinctive neighborhoods of Ghana’s capital.”
—The Millions, included in Nadia Owusu’s Year in Reading (2020)
“Thirteen tales of the trouble people find in the capital city of Ghana when they’re trying to make a buck . . . There’s plenty of noir to go around in this all-too-sad volume about people struggling to get by.”
—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED Review
“This spine-chilling 13-story collection offers an opportunity to ‘consider the context, beware of a pretext, search for a subtext’ on living—and dying—in a major metropolis consumed by poverty and desperation.”
—Shelf Awareness for Readers, STARRED Review
“Superb . . . Each story reaffirms how fundamental ‘place’ is to the noir genre and how the locale shapes the story as much as the characters themselves . . . Strongly recommended.”
—Library Journal
“This welcome volume in the Akashic noir series, set in Ghana, hits plenty of the expected bleak notes and classical noirish phrasings.”
—Publishers Weekly
“There’s good writing as well as a strong sense of place and culture, and the reader will absorb a side of Accra that doesn’t make it into the tourist brochures.”
—New York Journal of Books
“Within this new book, the authors who share their many stories do so in a much revealing way about Accra, a city of allegories, one of the most dynamic and diverse places in the world.”
—Exclusive Magazine
One of CrimeReads’ 10 Recommended New Releases of the Week
“I was blown away by these stories, and would encourage lovers of noir fiction to try these out. They are gritty enough to fill your noir needs.”
—The Cyberlibrarian
Description
Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.
Brand-new stories by: Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, Kwame Dawes, Adjoa Twum, Kofi Blankson Ocansey, Billie McTernan, Ernest Kwame Nkrumah Addo, Patrick Smith, Anne Sackey, Gbontwi Anyetei, Nana-Ama Danquah, Ayesha Harruna Attah, Eibhlín Ní Chléirigh, and Anna Bossman.
From the introduction by Nana-Ama Danquah:
Accra is the perfect setting for noir fiction. The telling of such tales—ones involving or suggesting death, with a protagonist who is flawed or devious, driven by either a self-serving motive or one of the seven deadly sins—is woven into the fabric of the city’s everyday life . . .
Accra is more than just a capital city. It is a microcosm of Ghana. It is a virtual map of the nation’s soul, a complex geographical display of its indigenous presence, the colonial imposition, declarations of freedom, followed by coups d’état, decades of dictatorship, and then, finally, a steady march forward into a promising future . . .
Much like Accra, these stories are not always what they seem. The contributors who penned them know too well how to spin a story into a web . . . It is an honor and a pleasure to share them and all they reveal about Accra, a city of allegories, one of the most dynamic and diverse places in the world.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I: One Day for Master
“Chop Money” by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond (Mallam Atta Market)
“Shape-Shifters” by Adjoa Twum (Pig Farm)
“Moon Over Aburi” by Kwame Dawes (Aburi)
“Fantasia in Fans and Flat Screens” by Kofi Blankson Ocansey (Jamestown)
Part II: Heaven Gate, No Bribe
“The Labadi Sunshine Bar” by Billie McTernan (Labadi)
“The Driver” by Ernest Kwame Nkrumah Addo (Weija)
“The Situation” by Patrick Smith (Labone)
Part III: All Die Be Die
“Intentional Consequences” by Anne Sackey (Kanda)
“Tabilo Wuɔfɔ” by Gbontwi Anyetei (Airport Hills)
“When a Man Loves a Woman” by Nana-Ama Danquah (Cantonments)
Part IV: Sea Never Dry
“Kweku’s House” by Ayesha Harruna Attah (Tesano)
“The Boy Who Wasn’t There” by Eibhlín Ní Chléirigh (East Legon)
“Instant Justice” by Anna Bossman (High Street)
Read an excerpt for Nana Brew-Hammond’s “Chop Money” at The Rumpus (and read a review of “Chop Money” at Black Star News).
Read an excerpt of the introduction by Nana-Ama Danquah at CrimeReads.
Read an interview with editor Nana-Ama Danquah at The Big Thrill.
- Subjects: Black Interest, Mysteries & Crime, Noir Series
- Tags: Accra, Accra Noir, Adjoa Twum, Africa, Akashic Noir Series, Anna Bossman., Anne Sackey, Ayesha Harruna Attah, Billie Adwoa McTernan, Eibhlín Ní Chléirigh, Ernest Kwame Nkrumah Addo, Gbontwi Anyetei, Ghana, Kofi Blankson Ocansey, Kwame Dawes, Meri Nana-Ama Danquah, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, Nana-Ama Danquah, noir, Noir Series, Patrick Smith
Book Details
Author
NANA-AMA DANQUAH was born in Accra, Ghana, and raised in the United States. She is the author of the memoir Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman’s Journey Through Depression, and the editor of three anthologies: Becoming American, Shaking the Tree, and The Black Body. Her essays, fiction, and poetry have been widely anthologized, and she has written for numerous magazines, journals, and newspapers, including Essence, Allure, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. During her tenure as an international speechwriter for the president of Ghana, the addresses she penned were delivered at the United Nations General Assembly, the African Union, the Palace of Westminster, the University of Oxford, and Harvard University. She has taught at Otis College of Arts and Sciences, Antioch University, Los Angeles, and the University of Ghana, Legon. She splits her time between Accra and Los Angeles, and has one daughter, the actress and writer Korama Danquah. She is the editor of Accra Noir.