Drinking from Graveyard Wells

Ndlovu, an oral storyteller of the Shona tradition, debuts with a collection of swift and often sharp-edged stories that vary from the realist to fantastical and spotlight the experiences of African women in their home communities and abroad. In “Red Cloth, White Giraffe,” a dead woman contemplates the significance of a red cloth on a gate as she watches her family gather for her own funeral. In the allegorical “Turtle Heart,” residents of an island crown a new king every year, cycling through its people, until a butcher takes power and eats turtle hearts to become an immortal and everlasting leader. The title story finds a family living in a neighborhood where houses and their inhabitants disappear overnight. The family waits in fear for it to happen to them: “I don’t know what tomorrow will hold. When our house vanishes at midnight, I wonder where we will wake up.” In other stories, Ndlovu takes a wry look at the imbalance of cultural exchange between the U.S. and Zimbabwe, such as in “Second Place Is the First Loser,” in which the narrator rues her former college friend’s success at launching Lyft after taking inspiration from her country’s informal ride sharing. These engrossing tales often end abruptly, but leave the reader with much to chew on. There’s much to enjoy in this wide-ranging work. (Mar.)