One World Two: A Second Global Anthology of Short Stories

by Chris Brazier (Editor), Okwiri Oduor, Edwidge Danticat

One World Two is the eagerly awaited follow-up to One World and another globe-trotting collection of stories. But it is more than simply an anthology of short fiction, as it contains representative literature from all over the world, conveying the reader on thought-provoking journeys across continents, cultures and landscapes. One World Two is even more ambitious than Volume One in its geographic scope, featuring twenty-one writers drawn from every continent. Most of the stories are unique to this volume, while others are appearing for the first time in English (Egypt's Mansoura Ez-Eldin and Brazil's Vanessa Barbara). The themes and writing styles are as richly diverse as their writers' origins. The collection is built around a loose theme of building bridges. It is interested in the human condition as a dynamic central line linking individuals, cultures and experiences: east and west, north and south, and, perhaps most importantly, past, present and future. This book features established stars such as Edwidge Danticat ( Breath , Eyes , Memory ), Viet Thanh Nguyen ( The Sympathizer ) and Aminatta Forna ( The Hired Man ) and authors who are steadily building a reputation such as Fan Wu, Ana Menéndez and Daniel Alarcon. In order of appearance, the authors are: Yewande Omotoso, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Heidi North-Bailey, Ana Menéndez, Mathew Howard, Okwiri Oduor, Desiree Bailey, Vamba Sherif, Alice Melike Ulgezer, Daniel Alarcon, Mansoura Ez-Eldin, Aminatta Forna, Nahid Rachlin, Samuel Munene, Vanessa Barbara, Ret'sepile Makamane, Fan Wu, Olufemi Terry, Balli Kaur Jaswal, Chris Brazier, and Edwidge Danticat. Edited and compiled by Ovo Adagha and Chris Brazier.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Unfinished, Anthologies

250 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 2016

Reviews

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting collection of short stories.

[Lori Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved the first anthology, and this one is a superb read as well, with a broader spectrum of countries and writers. These books should be required reading in school. So many cultures and traditions to learn!

[Jenny T · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading stories about different cultures and settings is fascinating, but this book just didn't hold my attention like the first volume did. A few of the tales were interesting (such as the one about the third wife), but most of the language seemed inaccessible, and the stories that were chosen just didn't satisfy. I felt that the first anthology had more moving and relatable characters, despite the different environments. This one isn't going to stay in my library, but at least I gave it a try.

[Maddy · Rating 2 out of 5]

"It was okay" is a good way to describe this. These are all perfectly adequate stories, but the ones I read all fall into clichés, and it is frustrating. I wasn't necessarily moved, touched, or inspired by anything, but that doesn't necessarily mean they were bad. "Serviceable" is another good word. Meh.

[Heather Foster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything felt “just alright.”

[Sadifura · Rating 5 out of 5]

i will be coming back to this collection when i revisit some of the stories for class that i needed to read only 5 of, but man...amazing fiction. amazing, amazing short fiction. giving it a 5/5 even with viet thahn nguyen's pervasive misogyny giving the collection a dirty taste, slightly, because the REST of the book...wow.

favorite stories:
-desiree c. bailey's "matchstick", especially for accurately portraying having body/gendered dysphoria over not being fat and being the rare representation of such in mainstream, literary, non-gainer kink written fiction (fiction written by kinksters is FINE and isn't inherently Not Art but it's so rare for artists to write about the desire to GAIN weight as something that's desirable for human embodiment)
-edwidge danticat's "dosas", with its intermingling of Haitian diasporic identity, bisexuality, and how at least Olivia and Elsie's bisexuality respectively intermingles with both of their diasporic identities

there are others that stood out to me that are on the tip of my tongue that my brain just cannot remember, but "matchstick" and "dosas" were the two that stood out most to me as memorable

[Anna Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

What do I think?

I think that this anthology is way more literary than I'm used to, and way more... coloured as well. The first of which turned out pretty well, considering, and the second of which was quite a deliberate choice. I mean, I did request this book for review solely because it purported to be one of those diverse books.

Diverse in this case, sounding rather black and tribal and refugeeish and war-torn. I am not sure why I expected otherwise. I suppose a pervasive theme in such stories is a sense of identity - who am I when I am not white? - which, I admit - is something I too struggle with. Maybe it's an identity of language. Who am I when I speak the white man's tongue but not my own? How do I exist in-between cultures, where the one I live in will never accept me fully, and the one I have left will never let me go? Am I doomed to always be an immigrant, even if I was born in this land?

There's a dream-like quality to most of these stories; something I've come to associate with literary pieces-presenting you a slice-of-life which is real life but not quite. They're gritty (as death and war and loss tends to be) and yet unreal, as if presented through a fog, a dream, or maybe just through the lenses of remembrance. And we know how unreliable our memories are. They betray us with our child-like innocence and surprise us with youthful resilience and tug at us with that longing just to know and be known.

Ethereal was the word I was looking for. Gritty and ethereal, both at once, as literary works are wont to be.

Note: I received a digital ARC of this book via Edelweiss for review purposes.

[Mills College Library]

Fiction O5858 2016