Harmattan

Bitlibro, 50 paĝoj

Lingvo: English

Eldonita de Bottlecap Press.

5 steloj (1 recenzo)

Harmattan is an exploration of loss guided by a traditional African understanding that whatever has tasted life can never truly die. This book is a quest for stillness amidst the chaos of grief – enough stillness to hear the overlapping melodies of life and death. It is tasting the peculiarly sweet fruits that choose the hardest seasons to ripen. It is the quiet room where our foremothers wipe our tears and remind us that we are made of relentless, boundless, mighty love, and that love never leaves us empty-handed.

Adaeze Elechi is a Nigerian writer and filmmaker. Her works are influenced by her desire to better understand the ways in which individual and collective histories (those remembered and those forgotten) shape our present understanding of ourselves. Her pieces have appeared in Guernica Magazine, Stylelikeu, and mindbodygreen. Her original films have screened at the St. Louis International Film Festival, and the …

1 eldono

A beautiful, comforting collection

5 steloj

Harmattan is a deeply thoughtful chapbook collection of prose and poetry exploring grief and loss between mothers and daughters, written while Adaeze Elechi was grieving her own mother's passing. I found it a comforting work to read although it is, of course, highly emotional. In the introduction, Elechi explains how she delved back into Igbo customs and beliefs in order to come to terms with her loss. A central tenet of those beliefs is the circular flow of life, from birth to death and birth again, and this theme runs throughout Harmattan.

At just fifty pages long, Harmattan can be read swiftly, but it also a work to be mulled over and savoured. I liked the imagery contained within the poems, and loved the prose pieces even more. Elechi's depictions of close mother-daughter relationships brought memories of my own mother to mind and I wish I could have had Harmattan …

Temoj

  • Poetry
  • Short stories
  • Grief
  • Nigeria