QUICK DELIVERY
Swift dispatch
THE NEW GIRL IN MOMBASA by Okanga Ooko
She ran away to find freedom only to find herself trapped.
After the death of her fiance, Wanjiru separates herself from her young son and escapes the suffocation of her life in Nairobi, boards a bus to Mombasa. Waiting to host her is Barack, an engineer who is returning to Nairobi after many years in Mombasa, to escape the memories of his complex relationship with a Muslim woman who died tragically in his hands. In Barack’s Nyali penthouse, Wanjiru finds herself trapped by her affection for the razor-sharp, complex, egotistical man who is obsessed only with maintaining the tight social rigours of his Bohemian lifestyle, working hard by the day and partying hard by the night. His only
dream in life is to leave Mombasa in his own physical or emotional ways to escape the anxiety of growing old. They begin to form an emotional bond that teeters on the edge of being called love, both of them knowing that if they ever choose to do so, it will break the idyll in which they're living. For Wanjiru, Mombasa means everything. Mombasa is a dream-come true and the future.
Here she makes friends and starts to build a life she loves. When Wanjiru begs and pleads and dangles the prospect of becoming more than a housemate, Barack finds himself powerless as ever to resist her siren song.
The New Girl In Mombasa is a portrait of two people running from a troubled past and moving towards an uncertain future. Set in Mombasa, Kenya’s famed coastal city of rich historical heritage and Swahili culture, it is a haunting look at loneliness, the struggle for love, belonging and independence. Its beauty lies in its subtlety, its emotional nuances. And Mombasa is glamorous, seductive, magical, always looped around by the sensuous, unrelenting rhythm of night clubs, and steeped in hookups, revelry, barhopping, and the pleasures of the beach parties.
INHERITED DANGER by Okanga Ooko
The nine stories mainly feature strong woman-led characters in their businesses, work places, and in other circumstances.
In Inherited danger, a ruthless activist-turned-politician must get married to her dead husband’s brother to save her organisation from the schemes of a shrewd competitor. Aftermath takes place in the guerilla-controlled Northen Uganda. Four girls fleeing into the forest to avoid being turned into sex slaves run into a bigger danger. In Moni Afinda, a middle-aged brand manager carries the memories of her father’s failures into her business. She must win a contract at all costs and succeed because she cannot repeat her father’s mistakes. In Kichorochoro, a tumult of personal tragedies pushes a young social worker into the frontier of doom without a back-up plan. She throws herself into her work of reshaping the lives of ragamuffin homeless boys in a dangerous Nairobi slum. Rude Awakening is about
the return of Ajwang Nyar Kadem, the famous femme fatale in Luo lore. The haunting cinema-esque Happy 9th Birthday is about a nine-year-old girl who is sexually abused by her father and its horrific aftermath. She throws the spanner into the works and into a nightmare of suspense and stark terror. The two last stories are about elderly musicians in a changing world. Kiss Ya Bangongi is set in the degenerate world of Congolese music and demonstrates that chasing greatness spurs doubt, self hatred, failure, and pain especially when the conditions for greatness are deemed by the sort of egotistical man the protagonist is. In First and Second Rhythm Guitars In an Old Benga Song, an old Benga guitarist must drop his personal principles and give benga music a facelift in order to save it from extinction. The two stories are linked inextricably to innovation in the guitar music, to chord changes, and voiced heartaches.
HUNTER AND GATHERER by Okanga Ooko
She is a hunter and he is a gatherer. She loves building enterprises. He is crazy about making money. But they have to be married because they both want one thing. Power.
Kassela Obange is an intelligent and ambitious marketing pro covertly orchestrating her destiny to success in advertising in the bustling business community of Upperhill, Nairobi. The millionaire tender-preneur Rapudo Oremo wants to marry her. Her unwarrantable attraction to him presents her with the prospect for power and freedom her heart truly yearns for and she is thrown into the arena of absurdity. Rapudo has only one goal: to use politics for gain. He wants to expand his business and amass more millions. He is vicious and overtly ambitious. He's shrewd. He's flamboyant. He's ruthless. He's unscrupulous.
He surrounds himself with shady deal makers, power brokers, ruthless lawyers and thugs from Katwikira in Kibira. Every political force in his path is turned into a surrogate for the motifs on the contemporary political scene. But this not any politics. This is Kenyan politics. It comes with furious vengeance and it is manned by greedy and corrupt players with cold-blooded underhand dealings. The game is played in a nefarious world. In a corrupted metropolis. In Nairobi City. The world of men.
Kasela finds herself in a spot. She must be Rapudo's wife. He must marry her on her terms. Her evolution from an ordinary professional into a cold blooded political animal is not by chance or circumstance, she is from Dandora in Eastlands, and she was born to struggle and use every opportunity that comes in her path. She finds herself ensnared in It's chicken coming home to roost.
BENGAMAN by Okanga Ooko
In 1975, as a man-boy, Otis Dinos makes a significant step into music when a guitar comes into his hands through quirky circumstances one sunny day in downtown Kisumu. He discovers he has talent for the guitar. In the '80s, he finishes schooling and tries to fit in and find his place. But he is more an archetype than flesh-and-blood youth. Performing with Nico Opija and KDF in Kondele gives him a beginning and a journey into music.
As a guitar student hitting all the required notes, Otis is the haunted genius. And KDF in Kondele is a training orchestra for demonology. He is desperate to leave Kondele’s dingy clubs to reach for the future. He seems to realise he is not accomplished until he moves to Nairobi. But the cold, cold heart of Nairobi’s nefarious pop culture schools him into becoming a more spoiled artist. Returning to Kisumu with a new band, accompanied by queasy bandmates in the ranks of villainous ne'er-dowells, he spirals down into the heart of Kisumu’s darkness, encountering upsurging whirlpools of struggle, feuds, survival, greed,
envy, infidelities, competition, and exploitation. How does he wind down the hysteria; somewhat, and make a fairly good case for extraordinary achievement backmasking in heavy benga music? That’s not the issue, the issue is that as famous as he is, Otis Dinos has more problems than a normal Kisumuan.
Providing a catharsis through comedy, lancing the Kenyan lakeside city’s moral boil with satire, Bengaman tells the story of ordinary men and women trying to live the Kenyan African dream. It is a story of a humble beginning, awkward and misdirected fumbling and miraculous accomplishment.
Call of the Abyss and Other Stories b...
A Funeral Dress for Nyasuguta by Sant...
Because Everyone Becomes Yesterday...
Yes, shake your head well before use. In this book, people are addressing others in various ways. A father writes a letter to the people who bullied his daughter into committing suicide. A mother writes to her daughter who is a video vixen and she doesn't take kindly to the way the daughter is using what 'her mama' gave her. There is even a comedian writing punchlines. In all, the reader gets to see some of the things that make other people become yesterday's newspapers. With a poem introducing each chapter and vivid illustrations, this is an ideal read for people of all ages.
A Slice of Darkness for Breakfast ...
A Slice of Darkness for Breakfast is what happen when you bring 9 talented writers together and ask, nay, demand that they go nuts.
The result is a breakfast of imaginative tales about the challenging art of being human, and the awakening of the monsters within.
We, the chefs, only ask, nay, demand, that you go as nuts consuming your breakfast, as we did preparing it. ;-)
A Mysterious Woman
A Mysterious Woman is a captivating story of Nyang’arisa, the protagonist and a woman who chose a life of crime for survival. Unlike what society is accustomed to, Nyang’arisa joins a group of men, her ‘business partners,’ to make a living through an unlawful acquisition of what belongs to others.
After some time, Nyang’arisa finds love in a young, hardworking, and loving man, Michael, whom she later marries. The thought of Michael knowing of her life in crime makes her scared and restless. She chooses to lead a mysterious life, with her history hidden from her husband and family. Nyang’arisa builds a new family, her tainted past notwithstanding. However, she lives always looking back over her shoulder with the nagging thought that her past might one day catch up with her.
True to her thoughts, her past catches up with her as she ends up spending the rest of her life behind bars.
Kwamboka’s Inquiry
Who killed Dr. Sarah Kwamboka?
This popular founder of a girls’ school is shot dead in her house and an inspector from Nairobi is sent to Kisii to investigate. While attempting to uncover the motive behind the brutal crime, Sgt. James Dingiria discovers that Kwamboka had been collecting memoirs from the area as a way of preserving the region’s history.
This novel weaves a murder mystery around short stories that reveal the history of ordinary people from this part of the country with a look at present-day Kenya.
What others say
“Dobrin has carefully plotted his novel with style that provides a smooth flow through short stories. It is a carefully thought plot that rouses a reader’s tang!’’- Sally Boyani, Book Editor.
“It is a gripping story about murder, corruption, power, church politics, colonisation and chauvinism. The great drift of suspense in the text and the interwoven short stories make it a page turner. It is a well told must read.’’- Verah Omwocha, Book Editor.
SECOND CHANCES BY ESTHER W. KAMANDE
Second Chances address challenges faced by a young lady, Mary, who drops out of school to get married to a rich drug lord. Having come from a poor background, she hates poverty and admires the flashy lifestyle money has to offer. She is introduced to drugs and alcohol while she is still in high school and when she is suspended from school, she quickly jumps into marriage. Her mother and brothers are against the marriage but her father is bribed by the rich drug lord to accept him as his son-in-law.
After she turns eighteen and signs a marriage certificate her husband turns abusive and engages in extramarital affairs. Mary stays in her husband's mansion, sometimes going without food with her daughter at the expense of her rich husband. The story portrays the plight of early marriages and teenage motherhood. It revolves around social status, loyalty, betrayal, crime, drugs, the power and greed for money and corruption. It also depicts the importance of education to our generation.
THE LAST HAND OF RAMOGI BY BEN O, OKECH
The Last Hand of Ramogi is an epic about the life of a legendary Luo chief, diviner and healer named Gor Mahia. It captures his childhood trials and challenges to claim his birthright in a fight for succession of the royal stool of Sigama. He becomes chief at a period where the encroachment by colonial masters redefines the system of governance and the old traditions in Luo land.
The Luo will always honour the spirit of Ramogi—the father of their ancestry in many ways. Ben O. Okech honours his legacy through a trio of fascinating novels about the Legacy. Old storytellers will give way to new age storytellers but the gist of stories, just like their heritage will always stay the same. They are captured in the titles The Last pillar of Ramogi, The last Known Maidens of Ramogi and The Last Hand of Ramogi.
Hide Your Lungs by Elvis Ondieki
Remember 2020? How men would suffer and at times die but women largely remained unscathed when a virus ran the world roughshod? How some patients would have symptoms while others never looked like they were infected even though the virus was dancing in their blood? This 186-page novel aims to capture that aspect of the disease that shook the world in 2020. Plus, it invites you to look at your lungs, their strengths and weaknesses. It encourages you to hide them, if you can.
How to be an African Lady by Uche Ony...
Old Money by Charles Chanchori
Rita, the ambitious matriarch of the Mugambi empire, is an overbearing mother to her sons Zain and Bahati. She runs her family as she runs her businesses - with an iron fist - and swiftly and mercilessly deals with any sign of rebellion. Are the boys willing to sacrifice their fortunes and status for the sake of freedom and a chance to reinvent themselves?
Set in the dynamic city of Nairobi, "Old Money" juxtaposes the lives of those privileged to be sitting in the lap of luxury with the lives of those eking out a living. The author draws us into a deeply riveting journey of transformation which explores corruption, exploitation, family relationships and blind ambition.
