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Foreign Soil: And Other Stories
From a powerful new voice in international fiction, this prize-winning collection of stories crosses the world—from Africa, London, the West Indies, and Australia—and expresses the global experience.
Maxine Beneba Clarke gives voice to the disenfranchised, the lost, and the mistreated in this stunning collection of provocative and gorgeously wrought stories that will challenge you, move you, and change the way you view this complex world we inhabit.
Within these pages, a desperate asylum seeker is pacing the hallways of Sydney’s notorious Villawood detention centre; a seven-year-old Sudanese boy has found solace in a patchwork bike; an enraged black militant is on the war-path through the rebel squats of 1960s Brixton; a Mississippi housewife decides to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her son from small-town ignorance; a young woman leaves rural Jamaica in search of her destiny; and an Australian schoolgirl loses her way.
In the bestselling tradition of novelists such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Marlon James, this urgent, poetic, and essential work is the perfect introduction to a fresh and talented voice in international fiction.
Maxine Beneba Clarke gives voice to the disenfranchised, the lost, and the mistreated in this stunning collection of provocative and gorgeously wrought stories that will challenge you, move you, and change the way you view this complex world we inhabit.
Within these pages, a desperate asylum seeker is pacing the hallways of Sydney’s notorious Villawood detention centre; a seven-year-old Sudanese boy has found solace in a patchwork bike; an enraged black militant is on the war-path through the rebel squats of 1960s Brixton; a Mississippi housewife decides to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her son from small-town ignorance; a young woman leaves rural Jamaica in search of her destiny; and an Australian schoolgirl loses her way.
In the bestselling tradition of novelists such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Marlon James, this urgent, poetic, and essential work is the perfect introduction to a fresh and talented voice in international fiction.
272 pages, Paperback
First published April 29, 2014
132 people are currently reading
5153 people want to read
About the author
Maxine Beneba Clarke
27 books393 followersMaxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian writer and slam poetry champion of Afro-Caribbean descent. She is the author of the poetry collections Gil Scott Heron is on Parole (Picaro Press, 2009) and Nothing Here Needs Fixing (Picaro Press, 2013), the title poem of which won the 2013 Ada Cambridge Poetry Prize.
Her debut short story collection, Foreign Soil, won the 2013 Victorian Premier's Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and will be published by Hachette Australia in early 2014.
As a spoken word performer, Maxine's work has been delivered on stages and airways, and in festivals across the country, including at the Melbourne Writers Festival (2008, 2010, 2013), Melbourne International Arts Festival (2012), the Arts Centre (2009) and the Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival (2013).
Maxine’s short fiction, essays and poetry have been published in numerous publications, including Overland, the Age, Big Issue, Cordite Poetry Review, Harvest, Voiceworks, Going Down Swinging, Mascara, Meanjin, Unusual Work and Peril.
She has been poetry editor of the academic journal Social Alternatives (2012), and spoken word editor for Overland literary journal (2011-12).
Maxine has conducted poetry classes and workshops for many organisations, including RMIT, The Victorian Association for the Teaching of English (VATE), Writers Victoria, Kensington Neighbourhood House and the Society of Women Writers (Vic).
Her debut short story collection, Foreign Soil, won the 2013 Victorian Premier's Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and will be published by Hachette Australia in early 2014.
As a spoken word performer, Maxine's work has been delivered on stages and airways, and in festivals across the country, including at the Melbourne Writers Festival (2008, 2010, 2013), Melbourne International Arts Festival (2012), the Arts Centre (2009) and the Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival (2013).
Maxine’s short fiction, essays and poetry have been published in numerous publications, including Overland, the Age, Big Issue, Cordite Poetry Review, Harvest, Voiceworks, Going Down Swinging, Mascara, Meanjin, Unusual Work and Peril.
She has been poetry editor of the academic journal Social Alternatives (2012), and spoken word editor for Overland literary journal (2011-12).
Maxine has conducted poetry classes and workshops for many organisations, including RMIT, The Victorian Association for the Teaching of English (VATE), Writers Victoria, Kensington Neighbourhood House and the Society of Women Writers (Vic).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 353 reviews
January 6, 2016
Racial issues are embedded in Australian culture. Current generations have grown up hearing stories of refugees, studying the events behind National Sorry Day, and watching footage of crowded boats desperate for asylum.
Maxine Beneba Clarke, an Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean heritage, has used Foreign Soil to confront different forms of cultural separation. From a Sudanese woman’s first attempt at riding a bicycle, to an ex Sri Lankan soldier held in detention, her short stories are character driven and explode from the page with dense emotional rhythm.
In the opening piece, ‘David’, a bike is used to symbolise freedom, showcasing Clarke’s talent with the poetic. The titular piece shows a young couple who, by shifting from one country to another, cause us to question how well we ever know those we love. And the story, ‘Shu Yi’, shows a schoolyard where the pain of being an outsider can turn desperation into cruelty, and underlines juvenile racism at its source.
Undoubtedly, the most harrowing is the story of Asanka, an asylum seeker held in detention at Villawood. Through his eyes, ‘The Stilt Fisherman of Kathaluwa’ exposes the realities of life as an underage soldier. His boat journey to Australia and days in detention are this collections ultimate wrench point, and I challenge anyone to read it and not feel something in their chest crack.
The collection is evidence of Clarke’s ability with slam-poetry and the spoken word. At times, I personally found the dialect jarring, even laborious, especially as I waded through the Jamaican-set ‘Big Islan’. The attempt to reproduce accents, although effective, diverted my attention away from the stories and made it harder to connect.
But this didn’t detract from the books intense power. Foreign Soil speaks of displacement and longing. It’s for anyone who has felt different, who has born witness to a punishment undeserving. It shines a light on the spaces, and fore-fronts the divide, between us and them.
Highly recommended.
Follow me on the blog! ----> https://ponderdeeper.wordpress.com/
Maxine Beneba Clarke, an Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean heritage, has used Foreign Soil to confront different forms of cultural separation. From a Sudanese woman’s first attempt at riding a bicycle, to an ex Sri Lankan soldier held in detention, her short stories are character driven and explode from the page with dense emotional rhythm.
In the opening piece, ‘David’, a bike is used to symbolise freedom, showcasing Clarke’s talent with the poetic. The titular piece shows a young couple who, by shifting from one country to another, cause us to question how well we ever know those we love. And the story, ‘Shu Yi’, shows a schoolyard where the pain of being an outsider can turn desperation into cruelty, and underlines juvenile racism at its source.
Undoubtedly, the most harrowing is the story of Asanka, an asylum seeker held in detention at Villawood. Through his eyes, ‘The Stilt Fisherman of Kathaluwa’ exposes the realities of life as an underage soldier. His boat journey to Australia and days in detention are this collections ultimate wrench point, and I challenge anyone to read it and not feel something in their chest crack.
The collection is evidence of Clarke’s ability with slam-poetry and the spoken word. At times, I personally found the dialect jarring, even laborious, especially as I waded through the Jamaican-set ‘Big Islan’. The attempt to reproduce accents, although effective, diverted my attention away from the stories and made it harder to connect.
But this didn’t detract from the books intense power. Foreign Soil speaks of displacement and longing. It’s for anyone who has felt different, who has born witness to a punishment undeserving. It shines a light on the spaces, and fore-fronts the divide, between us and them.
Highly recommended.
Follow me on the blog! ----> https://ponderdeeper.wordpress.com/
January 5, 2020
Foreign Soil is a really great short story collection that takes a look at otherness through eyes of various countries. In most cases these are not stories of immigration or immigrants, these are stories of people who are different from "the norm" in various ways and from the point of view of various countries. Clarke inhabits her characters in interesting ways. She takes various perspectives and really comes across as authentic. Though we probably should expect it, she an Australian poet turned author and seems to be able to empathize with different points of view and presents an understanding if not an agreement with the characters that she writes about.
This was my first experience with Clarke, but I doubt it will be my last. She has a way of writing that expresses empathy with all of her characters. A much harder task than it would seem. She evokes a lot of emotions including but not limited to anger and compassion. There is so much wisdom in her stories, they get stronger as I think back on them. She writes in patois which forced me to read some of the stories out loud to understand them completely (which again I think goes to her as a poet and orator). Here the patois was in Jamaican, Mississippi, Haiti and Uganda. Most of the stories are open ended. At first that was off putting, but as I read, I came to think of it as brilliant. How do you think the will stories end? How do you think they should end? I think Clarke is a great talent. More please…
4+ Stars
Read on kindle
This was my first experience with Clarke, but I doubt it will be my last. She has a way of writing that expresses empathy with all of her characters. A much harder task than it would seem. She evokes a lot of emotions including but not limited to anger and compassion. There is so much wisdom in her stories, they get stronger as I think back on them. She writes in patois which forced me to read some of the stories out loud to understand them completely (which again I think goes to her as a poet and orator). Here the patois was in Jamaican, Mississippi, Haiti and Uganda. Most of the stories are open ended. At first that was off putting, but as I read, I came to think of it as brilliant. How do you think the will stories end? How do you think they should end? I think Clarke is a great talent. More please…
4+ Stars
Read on kindle
October 29, 2021
It was only as I approached the end of this short story collection that I looked up Maxine Beneba Clarke's bio and discovered that she is a spoken-word performer. I think it shows, and now the style of some of her writing makes a lot more sense to me. Her ability to convey spoken language in the written form is very impressive! But if I have one criticism, it is that the narration doesn't really need to be written in an accent. I don't think it adds anything (at least not when the dialogue is done so well and already conveys the sense of place) and for me, it slowed my reading down enormously trying to wade through the Caribbean accents in particular.
Clarke is equally brilliant at delivering a quick sting in the tail as she is at revealing the tender moments of a hard life or a difficult situation.
Out of the collection, my two favourite stories were the longest ones; Gaps in the Hickory and The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa. Both could have been developed into the novella form or maybe even longer.
Clarke is equally brilliant at delivering a quick sting in the tail as she is at revealing the tender moments of a hard life or a difficult situation.
Out of the collection, my two favourite stories were the longest ones; Gaps in the Hickory and The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa. Both could have been developed into the novella form or maybe even longer.
July 1, 2016
4.5
This was definitely one of the best short story collections I've ever read. The stories are all incredibly diverse and give voices to those who you don't normally see represented in traditional media, particularly in Australia (eg. a Sudanese family in Melbourne, an asylum seeker in Villawood detention centre and trans people). Some of these stories are absolutely heartbreaking while others are heartwarming but they never felt cliche. They deal with so many different themes and some are particularly relevant to whats going on in the world right now. But with all short story collections, there were definitely some that I felt were stronger than others or I just enjoyed more than others (eg. Harlem Jones, Shu Yi, Gaps in the Hickory, The Stilt Fisherman of Kathaluwa) and there were one or two that were a lil' forgettable.
This was definitely one of the best short story collections I've ever read. The stories are all incredibly diverse and give voices to those who you don't normally see represented in traditional media, particularly in Australia (eg. a Sudanese family in Melbourne, an asylum seeker in Villawood detention centre and trans people). Some of these stories are absolutely heartbreaking while others are heartwarming but they never felt cliche. They deal with so many different themes and some are particularly relevant to whats going on in the world right now. But with all short story collections, there were definitely some that I felt were stronger than others or I just enjoyed more than others (eg. Harlem Jones, Shu Yi, Gaps in the Hickory, The Stilt Fisherman of Kathaluwa) and there were one or two that were a lil' forgettable.
December 29, 2016
The extraordinary sense of dislocation we experience in Maxine Beneba Clarke’s first short story collection is intentional. Every story describes a different type of “foreignness.” Clarke takes on the voice and persona of every nationality of yellow, brown, black, or white person, those with red hair, blond, or soft black curls. Each story describes a pain, an experience, that is commonplace enough among the natives she describes to be recognizable. Clark makes us uncomfortable. Slipping on the cloak of “other” isn’t always convincing, but her work is always an interesting and effective challenge to readers.
Clarke writes from Australia, but from an Australia that feels unfamiliar even in its English. Her stories put us on the back foot, and make us query. We are constantly scouring the words she has given us to divine her meaning. It feels sometimes as though she left us clues, but the cultural markers are not the ones we are familiar using. We have the experience of being the “other.” I grew to admire the discomfort Clarke evoked in me, at how many unfamiliar incidents she forced me to look at closely. If she did an insufficient job of navigating and communicating that episode, why do I feel that way and how would I do it? Oh yes, she’s a clever one.
The most absorbing and impelling, while still not entirely comforting, was the title story, “Foreign Soil.” An Australian hairdresser falls for a client and accompanies him back to Uganda. Cultural habits learned from childhood start seeping into his behaviors before he is even out of the airport. By the time she discovers she is pregnant, she knows she is not going to marry this man.
Many of Clarke’s stories could easily be turned into a classic horror stories. They have that feel. We grow afraid to peer around the next page, wondering what damage will be done to her characters in the meantime. Even in “Foreign Soil” we wonder if the wife won’t be walled up, literally and forever, inside the doctor’s quiet, lonely compound in Africa.
The story “Shu Yi” likewise has a horror pedigree reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, or other horror greats. An Asian immigrant without good language skills must navigate a white middle school which hosts one black adolescent. The black student is asked to interface the two groups, but is unwilling to risk her position of safety, an invisibility she feels she has earned. Observing, or putting ourselves in place of the black student—any road will get you there—deliver unto us the most vivid discomfiture.
Some of the stories are interlocking, or self-referencing. For instance, we may discover one of the stories being discussed later in the collection, as in “The Sukiyaki Book Club.” The emergence into metafiction is entirely consistent with the self-acknowledging feel of the whole work. Clearly no one author could have experienced, or even known people who experienced, all these different lives.
The stories, therefore, are a suggestion, a question-mark, an initial attempt to understand what others’ lives are. Readers are meant to take the fútbôl and run with it, changing what needs to be changed, adding flourishes and corrections until we finish up together, panting and laughing and sure we did our best, win or lose.
An example of an early story which put the wind up was “Harlem Jones,” about a young angry black man determined to make his mark in a London demonstration, even to the point of “cutting off his nose to spite his face.” This story did not seem to quite capture the mind of a young man: there was not enough fear and, at the same time, immortality in it.
Dissatisfied, I moved on, only to discover this was a thread, a kind of authorial technique. Clarke wanders in over her head, and looks to us. I grew to like her relying on us to think, to add our own understanding and our own spices. I did, though, also see room for greater clarity in style. Writing as a profession presumes we have something to say, but also that we say it well, and clearly, so that it is not mistaken. There was room for greater clarity, even supposing Australian and American are two different languages.
Clarke is a slam poetry artist, Australian, of Afro-Caribbean descent. Her Australia is unlike any I have encountered before. She has three books of poetry published or shortly due out, won awards for this story collection even before it was published, and has a memoir, The Hate Race, just published August 2016 in Australia. She has talent and plenty of room to run with it. Expect to hear more from her. 3.5 stars.
Clarke writes from Australia, but from an Australia that feels unfamiliar even in its English. Her stories put us on the back foot, and make us query. We are constantly scouring the words she has given us to divine her meaning. It feels sometimes as though she left us clues, but the cultural markers are not the ones we are familiar using. We have the experience of being the “other.” I grew to admire the discomfort Clarke evoked in me, at how many unfamiliar incidents she forced me to look at closely. If she did an insufficient job of navigating and communicating that episode, why do I feel that way and how would I do it? Oh yes, she’s a clever one.
The most absorbing and impelling, while still not entirely comforting, was the title story, “Foreign Soil.” An Australian hairdresser falls for a client and accompanies him back to Uganda. Cultural habits learned from childhood start seeping into his behaviors before he is even out of the airport. By the time she discovers she is pregnant, she knows she is not going to marry this man.
Many of Clarke’s stories could easily be turned into a classic horror stories. They have that feel. We grow afraid to peer around the next page, wondering what damage will be done to her characters in the meantime. Even in “Foreign Soil” we wonder if the wife won’t be walled up, literally and forever, inside the doctor’s quiet, lonely compound in Africa.
The story “Shu Yi” likewise has a horror pedigree reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, or other horror greats. An Asian immigrant without good language skills must navigate a white middle school which hosts one black adolescent. The black student is asked to interface the two groups, but is unwilling to risk her position of safety, an invisibility she feels she has earned. Observing, or putting ourselves in place of the black student—any road will get you there—deliver unto us the most vivid discomfiture.
Some of the stories are interlocking, or self-referencing. For instance, we may discover one of the stories being discussed later in the collection, as in “The Sukiyaki Book Club.” The emergence into metafiction is entirely consistent with the self-acknowledging feel of the whole work. Clearly no one author could have experienced, or even known people who experienced, all these different lives.
The stories, therefore, are a suggestion, a question-mark, an initial attempt to understand what others’ lives are. Readers are meant to take the fútbôl and run with it, changing what needs to be changed, adding flourishes and corrections until we finish up together, panting and laughing and sure we did our best, win or lose.
An example of an early story which put the wind up was “Harlem Jones,” about a young angry black man determined to make his mark in a London demonstration, even to the point of “cutting off his nose to spite his face.” This story did not seem to quite capture the mind of a young man: there was not enough fear and, at the same time, immortality in it.
Dissatisfied, I moved on, only to discover this was a thread, a kind of authorial technique. Clarke wanders in over her head, and looks to us. I grew to like her relying on us to think, to add our own understanding and our own spices. I did, though, also see room for greater clarity in style. Writing as a profession presumes we have something to say, but also that we say it well, and clearly, so that it is not mistaken. There was room for greater clarity, even supposing Australian and American are two different languages.
Clarke is a slam poetry artist, Australian, of Afro-Caribbean descent. Her Australia is unlike any I have encountered before. She has three books of poetry published or shortly due out, won awards for this story collection even before it was published, and has a memoir, The Hate Race, just published August 2016 in Australia. She has talent and plenty of room to run with it. Expect to hear more from her. 3.5 stars.
July 26, 2017
Will be one of my top reads for the year!
And is one of the best short story collections I have read.
more thoughts coming shortly
And is one of the best short story collections I have read.
more thoughts coming shortly
April 19, 2018
Some have commented the writing in this book is beautiful. It's not. There's an occasional nice turn of phrase, but it's otherwise heavy-handed, occasionally melodramatic, and often illogical.
The book is summed up by a conversation I had with my friend. I was halfway through the book, and was surprised at how plodding it was. I mentioned it to my friend, who'd already read it.
'But you have to look past the writing,' she told me.
Like important themes indemnify a book from bad writing. And that's why people exalt it -- because it is about something important. That blinds everybody. However, it just doesn't do what it's attempting very well.
All the stories follow the same formula:
-- introduce the premise
-- tons of exposition to arm the reader with everything they need to know to move the story forward
-- the denouement.
Characters behave unrealistically, while some come across as caricatures. The final short story (an attempt at meta-fiction) is one of the greatest self-serving pieces of fiction ever written -- an exercise in self-worship that attempts to convince the reader of the writer's struggle, despite her brilliance, and don't we just all feel sympathy for her plight?
Not a good collection. Don't look past the writing.
That'd be like saying about a painting, 'Look past the painting, because it's meant to be about something important.'
It's the writing that builds the story.
If that fails, the story fails also.
The book is summed up by a conversation I had with my friend. I was halfway through the book, and was surprised at how plodding it was. I mentioned it to my friend, who'd already read it.
'But you have to look past the writing,' she told me.
Like important themes indemnify a book from bad writing. And that's why people exalt it -- because it is about something important. That blinds everybody. However, it just doesn't do what it's attempting very well.
All the stories follow the same formula:
-- introduce the premise
-- tons of exposition to arm the reader with everything they need to know to move the story forward
-- the denouement.
Characters behave unrealistically, while some come across as caricatures. The final short story (an attempt at meta-fiction) is one of the greatest self-serving pieces of fiction ever written -- an exercise in self-worship that attempts to convince the reader of the writer's struggle, despite her brilliance, and don't we just all feel sympathy for her plight?
Not a good collection. Don't look past the writing.
That'd be like saying about a painting, 'Look past the painting, because it's meant to be about something important.'
It's the writing that builds the story.
If that fails, the story fails also.
May 11, 2014
Brilliant, amazing, powerhouse writing. My favourites were David, Shu Yi and The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa (which I think is the strongest one in the collection). The writing is well paced and delicious. Maxine's voice has this fable-like way of telling stories and adding detail while never being overdone or cliche or feeling overwritten. Buy and read.
August 6, 2014
She is basically a genius, this is the best book I have read in my entire life. The fact that we share the same name is purely coincidental.Every home should have this book.
December 14, 2015
Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneda Clarke is a collection of short stories that has set out to give a voice to the disenfranchised, the lost, downtrodden and even the mistreated. A collection of contemporary fiction that resulted from winning the Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award in 2013. In fact in the final story ‘The Sukiyaki Book Club’ Clarke appears to have drawn from her own struggles to get published in what appears to be the only autobiographical story in this collection.
I am never really sure how to review a collection of short stories; if I focus on one or two stories I feel like I’m not giving a balanced review, and if I wrote a little on every story this review will be too long. I normally adopt a generalised view with short stories and just hit a few points; it isn’t effective but I feel like it is the only way I know how to do it. Foreign Soil however has something else to it that makes it tricky to review.
One of the great things about Foreign Soil is that Maxine Beneda Clarke has managed to capture a very unique voice. She has found a style that works really well for her but I was more impressed just how diverse her voice could be. The stories follow characters living in Sydney, Melbourne, Mississippi, Jamaica, Sudan and so on, yet all the voices felt real and unique to what we think of with their nationalities. When the characters’ vernacular sounds like they have an accent and the way you expect; it almost has a phonetic quality about it.
That is not to say there is anything stereotypical about the characters, I don’t know much about the cultures written but they all feel genuine. The dialogue is one of the best qualities about this collection; from their broken English, accents and small quirks, each character’s strengths come from the skill Clarke has in giving them a voice.
It is hard to imagine that there was no place for Maxine Beneda Clarke in the publishing world.Foreign Soil has a place in the literary world, Clarke challenges the Anglo-Saxon dominance and gives a voice to the somewhat voiceless. This collection of short stories will leave you pondering life and justice as well as explore ideas of hope and despair. It is nice to read a book full of non-Caucasian ethnic groups exploring real life issues.
Foreign Soil is a wonderful collection of short stories; Maxine Beneda Clarke has stormed into the literary world swinging and I’m excited to see what she does next. I believe that her prize for winning the Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award involved a three-book deal. In the works is a memoir, hopefully similar to ‘The Sukiyaki Book Club’, which has the current working title of The Hate Race, then I believe there is also a novel coming called Asphyxiation. Foreign Soil is the type of collection that makes me excited for the future of the Australian publishing industry; I recommend you experience it if you get a chance.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2014/...
I am never really sure how to review a collection of short stories; if I focus on one or two stories I feel like I’m not giving a balanced review, and if I wrote a little on every story this review will be too long. I normally adopt a generalised view with short stories and just hit a few points; it isn’t effective but I feel like it is the only way I know how to do it. Foreign Soil however has something else to it that makes it tricky to review.
One of the great things about Foreign Soil is that Maxine Beneda Clarke has managed to capture a very unique voice. She has found a style that works really well for her but I was more impressed just how diverse her voice could be. The stories follow characters living in Sydney, Melbourne, Mississippi, Jamaica, Sudan and so on, yet all the voices felt real and unique to what we think of with their nationalities. When the characters’ vernacular sounds like they have an accent and the way you expect; it almost has a phonetic quality about it.
That is not to say there is anything stereotypical about the characters, I don’t know much about the cultures written but they all feel genuine. The dialogue is one of the best qualities about this collection; from their broken English, accents and small quirks, each character’s strengths come from the skill Clarke has in giving them a voice.
It is hard to imagine that there was no place for Maxine Beneda Clarke in the publishing world.Foreign Soil has a place in the literary world, Clarke challenges the Anglo-Saxon dominance and gives a voice to the somewhat voiceless. This collection of short stories will leave you pondering life and justice as well as explore ideas of hope and despair. It is nice to read a book full of non-Caucasian ethnic groups exploring real life issues.
Foreign Soil is a wonderful collection of short stories; Maxine Beneda Clarke has stormed into the literary world swinging and I’m excited to see what she does next. I believe that her prize for winning the Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award involved a three-book deal. In the works is a memoir, hopefully similar to ‘The Sukiyaki Book Club’, which has the current working title of The Hate Race, then I believe there is also a novel coming called Asphyxiation. Foreign Soil is the type of collection that makes me excited for the future of the Australian publishing industry; I recommend you experience it if you get a chance.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2014/...
June 7, 2019
4.5 Stars
This is one of the first collection of short stories I have read that branded their sorrows, ferocity and hope into my memory.
Each story is unique, every character distinctive. I cannot begin to describe how many emotions washed over me as I read this book. Read this book. It is a beautiful depiction of those who voice has been marginalised or forgotten.
This is one of the first collection of short stories I have read that branded their sorrows, ferocity and hope into my memory.
Each story is unique, every character distinctive. I cannot begin to describe how many emotions washed over me as I read this book. Read this book. It is a beautiful depiction of those who voice has been marginalised or forgotten.
March 17, 2017
Just finished this. Beautiful writing, heartbreaking (mostly) stories. Read it.
July 13, 2017
Fantastic short story collection, emotionally wrenching stories set around the world and around feelings of displacement. Terrible review for a great book - just read it!
August 27, 2017
Unique, diverse and fascinating.
January 6, 2022
This is not an easy read, but well worth the trouble for those who keep at it.
The themes are unique and more entertaining because of this - it's refreshing to read about these topics, albeit briefly. The characters are interesting and diverse, and anyone with the gift of empathy should connect to these heartfelt snippets of life.
I did find it tough going when the writing slipped into rubbish spelling and grammar in order to convey character, but it was appropriate in this elegant collection.
Don't expect any happy endings, as most stories feel unfinished, but if you're willing to try something a little different this is certainly worth your time.
The themes are unique and more entertaining because of this - it's refreshing to read about these topics, albeit briefly. The characters are interesting and diverse, and anyone with the gift of empathy should connect to these heartfelt snippets of life.
I did find it tough going when the writing slipped into rubbish spelling and grammar in order to convey character, but it was appropriate in this elegant collection.
Don't expect any happy endings, as most stories feel unfinished, but if you're willing to try something a little different this is certainly worth your time.
September 24, 2014
This book was interesting, and I can see why it has received critical attention in the way it tells somewhat 'untold' stories of the migrant/colonial experience. I didn't, however, find it particularly memorable, though this could be in part due to the short-story format which doesn't allow you to build a deep rapport with the characters. Plus it didn't seem like the characters in the stories were mutually exclusive, which was a bit confusing for me. I did most enjoy the final piece 'The Sukiyaki Book Club' for it's hopefulness.
April 11, 2017
An incredibly diverse collection of short stories set in all corners of the world, about the downtrodden and less fortunate in society. My description makes this sound like an incredibly bleak read, but often (not always) there is a feeling of hope on ending a story.
Picking a favourite from this collection is impossible, but if you are a fan of short stories I highly recommend checking this one out.
Picking a favourite from this collection is impossible, but if you are a fan of short stories I highly recommend checking this one out.
December 6, 2021
Short fiction collections like this have always had a certain allure for me, which I can trace back to The Boat by Nam Le. Foreign Soil has a lot in common with Le’s collection, both being incredibly diverse, immersive and dealing in different ways with experiences of migration. Foreign Soil is clever, moving, challenging and raw. In quite a few of her stories Beneba Clarke does this brilliant thing where she presents two impossibly distant characters and gradually reveals how their stories intersect. She also writes in a range of dialects, which made reading it a very rich experience. Easily one of the best things I’ve read in the last couple of years!
January 11, 2022
2.5/5
Some short stories were intriguing, others I didn’t really like. I think I would’ve enjoyed this book more if I didn’t have in mind that it’s a book I “need” to read for school and the creative response I now need to write for it. The writing style is good. Definitely one of the better books that we’ve had to read for school.
Some short stories were intriguing, others I didn’t really like. I think I would’ve enjoyed this book more if I didn’t have in mind that it’s a book I “need” to read for school and the creative response I now need to write for it. The writing style is good. Definitely one of the better books that we’ve had to read for school.
October 26, 2017
This is a real corker of a collection of stories about the multicultural experience, not just in Australia but across the world. Short story collections can literally be a mixed bag - so naturally there were some stories that I enjoyed more than others, but even so, this is a very strong collection of tight writing.
I listened to this as an audiobook narrated by Clarke herself - which I believe made it a much better, richer experience - mainly because she gets into the characters and their unique voices in the text are a real strength of the writing, so to have her reading them as she intended is even better - especially the characters with African accents.
I especially appreciated the last story, which is very self aware and could have easily become too gimmicky had she not crafted it so well.
This is a seriously great collection of stories and one of my few five-star reads this year - and I think it's a book that should be more than just something you read to tick the "diversity" book off your reading challenges - because the stories are so varied but at their essence so utterly human.
I listened to this as an audiobook narrated by Clarke herself - which I believe made it a much better, richer experience - mainly because she gets into the characters and their unique voices in the text are a real strength of the writing, so to have her reading them as she intended is even better - especially the characters with African accents.
I especially appreciated the last story, which is very self aware and could have easily become too gimmicky had she not crafted it so well.
This is a seriously great collection of stories and one of my few five-star reads this year - and I think it's a book that should be more than just something you read to tick the "diversity" book off your reading challenges - because the stories are so varied but at their essence so utterly human.
Read
January 30, 2023I listened to the first half of this short story collection, and read the second in a paperback. Maxine Beneba Clarke's reading was lyrical and powerful, but I had to 'return' the copy on the Libby app, and her voice shone through the writing all the same.
Some of these short stories were not 'easy', although one where I was dreading a development I thought I could see coming resolved much more happily than I was expecting. All of the stories took me outside my own experiences and perspective. They take place in various parts of the world and feature many different characters, all with a challenging, sometimes confronting, issue connected to racism, power, or disadvantage. I particularly enjoyed how the last story inserted the author's voice in a way I wasn't expecting.
Some of these short stories were not 'easy', although one where I was dreading a development I thought I could see coming resolved much more happily than I was expecting. All of the stories took me outside my own experiences and perspective. They take place in various parts of the world and feature many different characters, all with a challenging, sometimes confronting, issue connected to racism, power, or disadvantage. I particularly enjoyed how the last story inserted the author's voice in a way I wasn't expecting.
June 11, 2024
Really enjoyed this book with (mostly) Black stories from around the world. Clarke’s writing is beautifully poetic without being out of reach and though her stories are short, each story is written well to leave you wanting more. Literally.
Highly recommend.
Highly recommend.
May 1, 2021
"Foreign Soil is dedicated to Australian writers of color: those who paved the path before me, and those for whom these clumsy feet will hopefully help smooth the way." (from Acknowledgements)
As a whole, I really liked this wonderful collection of short stories dealing with a common theme - the desire and (often) inability to fit in and belong in a new place or (in one case) in a different body. The stories take us to different places around the world (Australia, England, the US, Jamaica, Somalia, Uganda, Sri Lanka) and the story lines often jump in time and space, following their characters' difficult, troubled journeys. She realistically depicts the clash of different cultures as well as generations, the difficult balance between the desire to belong and the need to remain true to yourself. Despite the similarities, her characters are diverse and their voices quite unique. Most of the stories don't offer a solution or an easy ending as we know things don't usually happen that way. The author doesn't directly point fingers at the systems or people to blame either, but instead shows a deep sympathy and understanding of her characters' plight.
Two of the stories will stay with me longer:
• Shu Yi (about school bullying) and
• The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa (about a boy soldier that escapes the Tigers in Shri Lanka and ends up at an Australian refugee camp)
I'm glad I stumbled upon this moving collection and I'm curious to read more by Maxine Beneba Clarke.
* * * * *
"My blackness was the hulking beast crouched in the corner of every room, and absolutely nothing was going to make it seem cool.” (from Shy Yi)
“In this place something so unbroken does not seem real.” (from The Stilt...)
As a whole, I really liked this wonderful collection of short stories dealing with a common theme - the desire and (often) inability to fit in and belong in a new place or (in one case) in a different body. The stories take us to different places around the world (Australia, England, the US, Jamaica, Somalia, Uganda, Sri Lanka) and the story lines often jump in time and space, following their characters' difficult, troubled journeys. She realistically depicts the clash of different cultures as well as generations, the difficult balance between the desire to belong and the need to remain true to yourself. Despite the similarities, her characters are diverse and their voices quite unique. Most of the stories don't offer a solution or an easy ending as we know things don't usually happen that way. The author doesn't directly point fingers at the systems or people to blame either, but instead shows a deep sympathy and understanding of her characters' plight.
Two of the stories will stay with me longer:
• Shu Yi (about school bullying) and
• The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa (about a boy soldier that escapes the Tigers in Shri Lanka and ends up at an Australian refugee camp)
I'm glad I stumbled upon this moving collection and I'm curious to read more by Maxine Beneba Clarke.
* * * * *
"My blackness was the hulking beast crouched in the corner of every room, and absolutely nothing was going to make it seem cool.” (from Shy Yi)
“In this place something so unbroken does not seem real.” (from The Stilt...)
March 1, 2017
What unique voices we have the pleasure to read in Clarke’s ‘Foreign Soil’! The settings and the characters are so vivid and bound to stick around in your brain long after you’ve finished the collection. These are sad, dark stories that will resonate with the reader and shake you to your core. Each story is interesting and different—no two stories here are alike! —covering a wide range of issues. It’s never boring, it’s never repetitive, and every page is unlike anything you’ve read before. (Although, this did remind me of Marlon James’s ‘A Brief History of Seven Killings’ and Nicole Dennis-Benn’s ‘Here Comes the Sun’ so fans of those books should definitely check ‘Foreign Soil’ out!)
My disappointment in the collection is a personal reading pet peeve: I never felt satisfied. Not every short story needs a clear resolution, but I do like to feel some sort of satisfaction from the ending. Sometimes these stories seemed shallow, rushed in their endings, and I needed just a bit more from them. To me, a short story should be like a cupcake, a treat you can consume in a few bites and feel full. I never felt full reading this collection, which is a shame, because this was a damn delicious cupcake. Still, this is a complaint that might not bother other readers, so I acknowledge that it’s a personal issue rather than a flaw in the writing.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-galley.
My disappointment in the collection is a personal reading pet peeve: I never felt satisfied. Not every short story needs a clear resolution, but I do like to feel some sort of satisfaction from the ending. Sometimes these stories seemed shallow, rushed in their endings, and I needed just a bit more from them. To me, a short story should be like a cupcake, a treat you can consume in a few bites and feel full. I never felt full reading this collection, which is a shame, because this was a damn delicious cupcake. Still, this is a complaint that might not bother other readers, so I acknowledge that it’s a personal issue rather than a flaw in the writing.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-galley.
September 17, 2017
In spite of the high praise it's received, I found Foreign Soil deeply disappointing. While I give Clarke credit for the breadth of her stories, I don't feel they were executed in a way that was consistently engaging.
I was able to make it through all of the stories in Foreign Soil minus "Gaps in the Hickory" and "Big Islan," which I found distracting and insufferable. While I gather that Clarke's decision to write both stories in pidgin English was to lend (what she perceives to be) an authentic voice to her protagonists, this only made the stories difficult to get through and connect with as a reader (and caused me to abandon them altogether). "Aviation" was also one of my least favorites, since I often find that the use of 9/11 as a backdrop for fiction tends to come off trite and superficial.
"Shu Yi" was by far the most affecting story for me in Foreign Soil. I very much appreciated the starkness with which Clarke portrayed the consequences of bullying from a child's perspective, and how she was able to realistically relay that not all such instances end with acceptance and contrition.
In the end, Clarke's collection felt far more wayward than meaningfully diverse.
I was able to make it through all of the stories in Foreign Soil minus "Gaps in the Hickory" and "Big Islan," which I found distracting and insufferable. While I gather that Clarke's decision to write both stories in pidgin English was to lend (what she perceives to be) an authentic voice to her protagonists, this only made the stories difficult to get through and connect with as a reader (and caused me to abandon them altogether). "Aviation" was also one of my least favorites, since I often find that the use of 9/11 as a backdrop for fiction tends to come off trite and superficial.
"Shu Yi" was by far the most affecting story for me in Foreign Soil. I very much appreciated the starkness with which Clarke portrayed the consequences of bullying from a child's perspective, and how she was able to realistically relay that not all such instances end with acceptance and contrition.
In the end, Clarke's collection felt far more wayward than meaningfully diverse.
May 26, 2015
An expansive series of short stories all exploring elements of difference - mostly race, but also gender and sexuality. Foreign-ness. And the tendancy of many of us, irrespective of backgrounds, to despise / envy those we see as superior to us, and distain or take advantage of those we think are less than us. But not always - we can buck this tendancy. A beautifully composed series of stories, exposing some of the horrors - physical, emotional and spiritual - that many people suffer through, but also showing hope, pointing to some solutions, the first of which us greater understanding and compassion, even for those we might initially tag as 'bad'.
April 25, 2015
Loved it. The stories in this collection are complex, showing the tensions characters face in situations ranging from primary school to the London Black Panthers. The writing is gorgeous. Lines like 'I liked it in the library, though I knew enough to suspect that in real life the mothers of Stoneybrook would never have let Jessi, Claudia or any other brown-skinned girl anywhere near their immaculately blond-bobbed children, even with the endorsement of the whole rest of Ann M. Martin's Baby-sitters Club' (Shu Yi). 'All-a dem years since slavery, an still wen da master say jump, de islan jus gather roun debatin how high dem gwan lif dem feet' (Big Islan).
May 7, 2021
I really enjoyed this short story collection about people who are outsiders, or on "foreign soil." These are mostly stories of immigrants, but they are very diverse - we get to read about everything from rural Jamaica during the Windrush generation to the modern Australian detention centers. The author is Australian so a good majority of the stories revolve around people migrating there. It's a unique collection of stories and I liked all of them, which is rare for me with a short story collection.
February 13, 2021
Very memorable set of short stories. I think many of the characters and stories will stick with me; Foreign Soil, Gaps in the Hickory and The Stilt Fisherman of Kathaluwa were probably the standouts, except that feels unfair to say as the stories were all linked and kind of enhanced each other. The final one really tied everything together and left the collection on a hopeful note.
July 4, 2014
The most phenomenal collection of short fiction I've come across in a very long time. All the stories were amazing but my particular favourites were 'The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa' and 'Harlem Jones'.
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