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by Rod Amis

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G21.net Established on the WWW 1996 25,000-(And Counting) Articles Served (per Google.com) Issue #466: WORLD VIEW AMERICAN DREAMS TOM PARISH & ROD AMIS, USA G21 AFRICA STEVE OGAH, Africa G21 ASIA ANTONIO GRACEFFO, Thailand JOIN OUR MAILING LIST. It contains more jokes than not. G21 E-MAIL NEWSLETTER GLOBAL*BEAT ROD AMIS, USA SMOKE & MIRRORS ROD AMIS, G21 World HQ TABLOID HART THOMAS HART, USA THE PREVIOUS EDITION MEET THE G-CREW! These are the people behind this jam-band every week. HOME TABLE OF CONTENTS & BACK ISSUES BECOME A SPONSOR OF THE WORLD'S MAGAZINE. WHY should you advertise here? We'll tell you. We know you're lazy. Here's a button for a quick translation of this page. Just click on the flag for your country. You're welcome! OR TRY THIS GOOGLE TRANSLATION SERVICE.

GLOBAL*BEAT - KEN KAMOCHE: A FRAGILE HOPE: Our Publisher, ROD AMIS, reviews the new book by the G21 Alumnus released this month and already nominated for an international award.

19 May 2007, Austin, TX, USA: Ken Kamoche's new collection of short stories, A Fragile Hope (Salt Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2007 - # ISBN-10: 1844713202 - ISBN-13: 978-1844713202) was released this month, internationally. It immediately was met with acclaim and is nominated for Ireland's Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.

The eleven (11) stories in this collection take us to Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Lagos and London, among other world cities, to show the melding of global cultures and its effect on our identities, not only from the perspective of Africans (Mr. Kamoche was born in Kenya) but also from that of young Asian women and others. One is reminded of the perspective of Salman Rushdie, with whom Mr. Kamoche compares favorably, and how he demonstrated the impact of immigration and emigration in the UK. Mr. Kamoche aspires to show us more, gives us tales from three continents.

The Rushdie comparison is not idle; Kamoche shows the same playfulness, ear for spoken English (in various idioms) and sense of how we understand each other. Here is a representative passage from this collection, where Kamoche plays with spoken words:

"Sawasdee, khai?"

"Hi there."

"No speak Thai? You leply, sawasdee klap."

"Okay. Sawasdee klap."

She clapped her hands like a child who had won a prize.

"Wo you name?"

"Karani."

"Kaani? Nice meet you. Me? Kai. Kai mean chicken. Is nickname. Thai people like funny nickname."

He laughed, and realized it was the first time he had laughed in weeks. - From "The Dream Went Out"

In another story, as a further example, he has a character remember adolescent fantasies for a lovely biology teacher and the character recalls that everyone referred to the class as "baiyo." He plays with that non-word, spoken speech, baiyo, later in the story and it resonates.

What is most moving about the collection is the precision with which Kamoche deals with human emotions - passion, desire, regret - often in trying circumstances. He plumbs the feelings people undergo dealing with life-altering events like family deaths, poverty, inter-racial relations, sexual betrayal and longing for home from a distant land.

Showing great versatility, Kamoche writes from both the male and female perspectives in these stories. He shifts easily from one kind of protagonist to another - a drug "mule" from Kenya, a Chinese girl from Hong Kong, an accountant in Leeds.

The short story form does not have the favor, here in the U.S., that it once had in the days of Twain, Hemingway or even O'Connor. I've often lamented that fact because it is a form worth encouraging. Kamoche's work provides a wonderful example of how the short story can be used to great effect, illuminating the issues of our lives in this new era of globalization and the mingling and collisions of various cultures.

Other authors speak well of the achievement here:

Ken Kamoche displays an impressive mastery of the short story form. The stories, set in places as diverse as China and Africa and Britain, all show a consistency in their sympathetic grasp of human nature. The characters are so true, their dilemmas so touching that one is drawn effortlessly into their world. Here is all that we require from a short story collection: depth, diversity, and brilliance of expression. - Helon Habila, Caine Prize and Commonwealth Writers' Prize Winner.

Ken Kamoche is a talented author as well as an ambitious one. His characters live and breathe with real passion. I've waited for this book a long time. - David Gerrold, "Star Trek" Writer, Hugo and Nebula Prize Winner.

Another facet that resonates through this book is Kamoche's empathy and sympathy for other human beings. You come away from it knowing his compassion for his characters, be they con artists on the street or executioner's (one of the characters is an executioner) in a prison or women who discover - late in life - that they are not infertile. He plays each of their inner lives like a fine violinist.

I am proud to highly recommend this collection of short stories to you. As one of the publishers of Ken's fiction and non-fiction works over the years, I'm thrilled to see his voice reaching a wider audience. You can purchase A Fragile Hope directly from his publisher's site or at Amazon.com.