Love is Power, or Something Like That by A. Igoni Barrett

In these wide-ranging stories, Barrett roams the streets with people from all stations of life. A minor policeman, full of the authority and corruption of his uniform, beats his wife. A family’s fortunes fall from love and wealth to infidelity and poverty as poor choices unfurl over three generations. With humour and tenderness, Barrett introduces us to an utterly modern Nigeria, where desire is a means to an end, and love is a power as real as money.

A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria in 1979, and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, Or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Afrrica39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his latest book.