A Long Way from DoualaImportant issues of violence, terrorism, homosexuality and migration feature in A Long Way from Douala, the first publication in English of a work by Max Lob, an important new voice in African writing. On the trail of Roger, a brother who has gone north in search of football fame in Europe, Choupi, the narrator, takes with him the older Simon, a neighborhood friend. The bus trip north nearly ends in disaster when, at a pit stop, Simon goes wandering

the body count rises and the secrets of the portrait gradually unfold

mysterious young bailiff at the house is rumoured to be his illegitimate son

fooling us with his vernacular stance whilst weaving complex rhyming structures and dissonant melodies… and the poems carry a succulent sting in the tail

by Vernon Scannell

Banipal 43 publishes excerpts from each of the six shortlisted novels – a collaboration between Banipal and the Emirates Foundation

Kevin Jared Hosein won the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Patrick Drysdale and Mike Lyons: Five Bachmann poems

Ahmad Ali El-Zein – Excerpt from The Edge of Oblivion

Santiago Sketches is one of the first books in English about living in that city to which millions have travelled

middle-class

Nor are the forms any less varied: epic poetry

Sarah Tweed