Today, the 8th of June, 2020 is the official release day of the highly anticipated collection of short stories titled, ‘A Broken People’s Playlist’ by Chimeka Garricks and we are featuring the author on our “Spotlight” to get more insight on the book as it is now available at your nearest online and offline bookstore near you.
The Author: Chimeka Garricks is a writer, editor and lawyer. He was born in Dublin and was raised in Port Harcourt. His writing includes his critically acclaimed debut novel, ‘Tomorrow Died Yesterday’, published in 2010. ‘A Broken People’s Playlist’, a collection of short stories, is his second book. He lives in Lagos with his wife, Biyai, and their three children.
I have recently reviewed ‘A Broken People’s Playlist’ and you can check it out HERE
As part of the activities to mark the release of this highly anticipated collection of short stories, I have asked Chimeka a few questions about his new book and why we should all go out to buy and read it.
Read and enjoy!
Spotlight: Chimeka, can you tell us a little about your new collection of short stories, ‘A Broken People’s Playlist’?
Chimeka: It’s a collection of 12 music-inspired stories, each titled after a song. They are stories are about the human condition, love, and sometimes, redemption. The music and stories are so infused that sometimes, I see them in my head as short films with an accompanying soundtrack — basically, music to live life to. The stories are also a love letter to Port Harcourt (the city where I grew up, and which I set most of them in).
Spotlight: How are the stories in this collection similar or different from your previous and highly acclaimed novel, ‘Tomorrow Died Yesterday’?
Chimeka: Apart from the obvious structural differences like length, form, pacing, etc, I think the concise nature of short stories forces the writing to be tighter. Also, short stories allow for more experimentation — so, I have stories in first-person, second-person, third-person, and alternating person point-of-views; and I took up a challenge to improve on writing better-rounded female characters. The similarities are that the main characters in both books are deeply flawed; and that a story in ‘A Broken People’s Playlist’ answers the question of what happened to Kaniye and Deola from ‘Tomorrow Died Yesterday’.
Spotlight: Why should people read ‘A Broken People’s Playlist’?
Chimeka: Read? I prefer that people buy enough copies of ‘A Broken People’s Playlist’ so I can make enough money to retire somewhere in the Mediterranean, with a hammock, and a heavenly view. Seriously though, I hope people read for the warmth and beauty in the stories. And for the music.
You can purchase a copy of this book at www.masobebooks.com/ABPPL
**Special thanks to Chimeka Garricks for granting the request to be featured on this blog’s Author’s Spotlight.
Synopsis:
‘A Broken People’s Playlist’ is a collection of short stories with underlying themes so beautifully woven that each story flows into the other seamlessly. From its poignant beginning in “Lost Stars” a story about love and it’s fleeting, transient nature to the gritty, raw musical prose encapsulated in “In The City”, a tale of survival set in the alleyways of the waterside. A Broken People’s Playlist is a mosaic of stories about living, loving and hurting through very familiar sounds, in very familiar ways and finding healing in the most unlikely places.
The stories are also part-homage and part-love letter to Port Harcourt (the city which most of them are set in). The prose is distinctive as it is concise and unapologetically Nigerian. And because the collection is infused with the magic of evocative storytelling, everyone is promised a story, a character, to move or haunt them.
Pages: 225
Genre: Short stories
Publishers: Masobebooks
Copyright © Biyai Garricks
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