What do you think?
Rate this book
Calico Series #6
No Edges: Swahili Stories
Swahili is the future. The first collection of Swahili literature of its kind, No Edges: Swahili Stories introduces eight East African writers from Tanzania and Kenya as they share tales of sorcerers, Nairobi junkyards, cross-country matatu rides, and spaceships that blast prisoners into eternity. Here we’re invited to explore the chaos of life on an overcrowded Earth as well as those mysterious realms that lie just beyond our reach. Translated into an English bursting with rhythm and vivid Africanfuturist visions, these are writers who are authoring the boundless future into being.
141 pages, Paperback
First published April 11, 2023
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
September 4, 2023
I continue to love what Two Lines Press is doing with their Calico series. This one highlights short fiction and novel excerpts of authors from Tanzania and Kenya, translated from Swahili. All are imaginative and enjoyable in different ways.
My favorites:
"The Guest”
"A Neighbor’s Pot”
Excerpt from the novel "Walenisi"
My favorites:
"The Guest”
"A Neighbor’s Pot”
Excerpt from the novel "Walenisi"
July 5, 2023
An interesting, and short, anthology of stories originally written in Swahili). I felt some stories lacked high stakes or more poignant endings, but, overall, I found them all interesting for a slightly different approach to storytelling.
In all, it's worth a try, especially as an audiobook that contains a sample of the original story in Swahili and translated text. The audiobook is less than 4 hours long and if, like me, you listen to audiobooks at higher speeds (my choice is between 1.85 - 2.15) you'll be done in around two hours.
In all, it's worth a try, especially as an audiobook that contains a sample of the original story in Swahili and translated text. The audiobook is less than 4 hours long and if, like me, you listen to audiobooks at higher speeds (my choice is between 1.85 - 2.15) you'll be done in around two hours.
February 16, 2023
The first short story collection translated from Swahili to English. Some of the stories are translated with a more natural flow than others.
Some of my favorites were “The Guest” which is about a young woman who invites over her lover to meet her family
“A Neighbor’s Pot” which is a fantastical story where a girl trips on a pot shard and ends up in a demonic realm
And “Attitudes” which is about a woman traveling on a bus of people who just don’t like her vibe (and she has some tummy issues!)
Overall, I recommend to get a glimpse into other cultures (the authors are mostly Kenyan or Tanzanian) and to see the ways that stories are told (More of a fable vibe, character heavy, etc)
Some of my favorites were “The Guest” which is about a young woman who invites over her lover to meet her family
“A Neighbor’s Pot” which is a fantastical story where a girl trips on a pot shard and ends up in a demonic realm
And “Attitudes” which is about a woman traveling on a bus of people who just don’t like her vibe (and she has some tummy issues!)
Overall, I recommend to get a glimpse into other cultures (the authors are mostly Kenyan or Tanzanian) and to see the ways that stories are told (More of a fable vibe, character heavy, etc)
April 27, 2024
No Edges: Swahili Stories, part of the Calico Series published by Two Lines Press, 2023
I have a (BIG) bone to pick with Two Lines Press and how they’ve mislabelled this collection as short stories. Half of these individual works are not stories—short or otherwise. They are excerpts, and these excerpts don’t read like they’ve been revised or rewritten as a shorter work of fiction which can be classified as a story, something that you would expect when these are labelled “stories.” At first, I thought it was my fault that I was reading these excerpts and expecting stories, but no, “stories” is one half of the subtitle, No Edges: Swahili Stories. Furthermore, there’s a review on Two Lines Press’s website that they’ve posted in which a reviewer calls the collection short stories. To add to this, I know someone who reached out to Two Lines Press for clarification about these pieces of writing and was told it is indeed a compilation of short stories.
Two Lines Press, I don’t appreciate the outright lies and bad marketing, and it is for this reason that I’m going to rant because I expected more from you. You are an indie press and as such, I hoped that, unlike many big publishers, you’d have integrity. Do you think it’s acceptable to mislead readers who are trying to read books from smaller, independent presses? Independent presses that, you would think can’t afford negative PR—especially after what has recently happened with SPD. I would expect this type of ridiculous PR stunt from a large publisher, but not from a small one.
Two Lines Press, I don’t care why you dishonestly marketed your collection of excerpts which, half of the time don’t make sense because they weren’t rewritten/revised to be short stories. And it’s not as if you can’t revise an excerpt so it’s an exceptional shorter work of fiction. In fact, Lit Mag News has published an article about why it’s important to revise an excerpt so that it is a story. Read the article here. The long of the short is that “A reader must be able to understand the piece without any outside information [ . . . ] the piece must be its own story.” Which is definitely not what you’ll read in this “short story” collection because these aren’t (all) stories. The excerpts are confusing snippets of writing that always feels like something is missing.
Here's the last of my rant. Two Lines Press, I don’t appreciate that I my hard-earned money paid for only four actual short stories. You know what the worst part is? The actual short stories were pretty darn good, and the excerpts had potential. You, Two Lines Press, have done the writers a disservice. What a shame. You had the opportunity to highlight and introduce voices which I wouldn’t have otherwise had access to. I cannot, in good faith, ever recommend No Edges: Swahili Stories nor purchase it for a fellow booklover.
[Physical, purchased from Chapters/Indigo]
I have a (BIG) bone to pick with Two Lines Press and how they’ve mislabelled this collection as short stories. Half of these individual works are not stories—short or otherwise. They are excerpts, and these excerpts don’t read like they’ve been revised or rewritten as a shorter work of fiction which can be classified as a story, something that you would expect when these are labelled “stories.” At first, I thought it was my fault that I was reading these excerpts and expecting stories, but no, “stories” is one half of the subtitle, No Edges: Swahili Stories. Furthermore, there’s a review on Two Lines Press’s website that they’ve posted in which a reviewer calls the collection short stories. To add to this, I know someone who reached out to Two Lines Press for clarification about these pieces of writing and was told it is indeed a compilation of short stories.
Two Lines Press, I don’t appreciate the outright lies and bad marketing, and it is for this reason that I’m going to rant because I expected more from you. You are an indie press and as such, I hoped that, unlike many big publishers, you’d have integrity. Do you think it’s acceptable to mislead readers who are trying to read books from smaller, independent presses? Independent presses that, you would think can’t afford negative PR—especially after what has recently happened with SPD. I would expect this type of ridiculous PR stunt from a large publisher, but not from a small one.
Two Lines Press, I don’t care why you dishonestly marketed your collection of excerpts which, half of the time don’t make sense because they weren’t rewritten/revised to be short stories. And it’s not as if you can’t revise an excerpt so it’s an exceptional shorter work of fiction. In fact, Lit Mag News has published an article about why it’s important to revise an excerpt so that it is a story. Read the article here. The long of the short is that “A reader must be able to understand the piece without any outside information [ . . . ] the piece must be its own story.” Which is definitely not what you’ll read in this “short story” collection because these aren’t (all) stories. The excerpts are confusing snippets of writing that always feels like something is missing.
Here's the last of my rant. Two Lines Press, I don’t appreciate that I my hard-earned money paid for only four actual short stories. You know what the worst part is? The actual short stories were pretty darn good, and the excerpts had potential. You, Two Lines Press, have done the writers a disservice. What a shame. You had the opportunity to highlight and introduce voices which I wouldn’t have otherwise had access to. I cannot, in good faith, ever recommend No Edges: Swahili Stories nor purchase it for a fellow booklover.
[Physical, purchased from Chapters/Indigo]
November 23, 2024
These Excerpts were so good! I wish i could get some of the whole books translated!!!
March 19, 2023
***Thanks to Goodreads, the authors and translators and the publishers for a chance to read and rate this book in exchange for the book.***
May 22, 2023
A translated short story collection gives voice to the Swahili writers to reach their words to the world. 'No Edges' primarily focuses on the Swahili people's culture, traditions, living, emotions, and wisdom through some chilling and intriguing short stories.
8 short stories, 8 distinctive themes, and characteristics.
From Schizophrenia to Allegory, from Magical Realism to Oneirophrenia 'No Edges' has everything. There is reality and there is fantasy in the stories. While one has metaphor and symbolization, the other directly portrays the rawness of humanity. There are parallel lines drawn between humour and anger. The final story from Nagona gave the essence of the allegory in 'Waiting for Godot'. The cultural and philosophical points of view in some of the stories can be helpful for scholars who want to research the cultural studies of the Swahili people. A perfect blend of everything to feed your brain cells.
Thanks Tilted Axis Press for the digital copy of 'No Edges'.
8 short stories, 8 distinctive themes, and characteristics.
From Schizophrenia to Allegory, from Magical Realism to Oneirophrenia 'No Edges' has everything. There is reality and there is fantasy in the stories. While one has metaphor and symbolization, the other directly portrays the rawness of humanity. There are parallel lines drawn between humour and anger. The final story from Nagona gave the essence of the allegory in 'Waiting for Godot'. The cultural and philosophical points of view in some of the stories can be helpful for scholars who want to research the cultural studies of the Swahili people. A perfect blend of everything to feed your brain cells.
Thanks Tilted Axis Press for the digital copy of 'No Edges'.
January 8, 2024
A collection of East African authors’ short stories translated from Swahili. My favorite part of this book is that it opens the reader up to a whole new world of idioms in the English language. I would imagine idioms are often hard to translate, but they gave energy and life to each story. Some of these stories felt like fables, legends, or myths, and I enjoyed some of the authors’ abilities to immediately set the stage for mysticism in this short format.
Favorite quotes:
“Youth is nothing but boiling water, and a deaf ear can’t hear its own cure.”
“It’s just like the Swahili say: human in sight, but not at heart. Or: the thing that’s eating you is inside your own clothes.”
“For history is an indelible reality, one that is shaped in the minds of humans through narratives, understood through neither critical thinking nor logic.”
“The nature of creation is to hide; that of humanity, to expose.”
Favorite quotes:
“Youth is nothing but boiling water, and a deaf ear can’t hear its own cure.”
“It’s just like the Swahili say: human in sight, but not at heart. Or: the thing that’s eating you is inside your own clothes.”
“For history is an indelible reality, one that is shaped in the minds of humans through narratives, understood through neither critical thinking nor logic.”
“The nature of creation is to hide; that of humanity, to expose.”
June 30, 2024
I was disappointed by this one. Reading some of the other Calico series - Through the Night Like a Snake and That We May Live (both EXCELLENT) - I’d come to expect extremely high quality short stories.
The first 2-3 stories of No Edges don’t disappoint; The Guest and A Neighbor’s Pot are poetic, magical bursts of writing with a strong feel of spoken/oral storytelling that makes them extra captivating. Unfortunately, half of the remainder of the collection is made up of excerpts from longer novels rather than being short stories, and therefore lack truly effective dramatic structure. Some of these excerpts introduce dramatic tension without any resolution, others include exposition before cutting off abruptly.
Overall, the beauty in the pros here is lovely. These are incredible authors; it’s just that, perhaps, this wasn’t the best format for sharing their work.
The first 2-3 stories of No Edges don’t disappoint; The Guest and A Neighbor’s Pot are poetic, magical bursts of writing with a strong feel of spoken/oral storytelling that makes them extra captivating. Unfortunately, half of the remainder of the collection is made up of excerpts from longer novels rather than being short stories, and therefore lack truly effective dramatic structure. Some of these excerpts introduce dramatic tension without any resolution, others include exposition before cutting off abruptly.
Overall, the beauty in the pros here is lovely. These are incredible authors; it’s just that, perhaps, this wasn’t the best format for sharing their work.
January 19, 2025
There are not enough stories in this world, I have often thought, of people shitting themselves on buses. I know a guy who got food poisoning from a pizza hut in India directly before getting on a bus for thirty hours, and had to puke and shit out the window for twenty hours or so. I myself puked from food poisoning in Nepal while on a short bus ride to the plane, and nobody seemed to think it was a big deal. In Africa they are not so tolerant, but shitting yourself on a bus is still way better than being a witch.
I have to say that none of these stories made me want to visit Kenya or Tanzania but at the same time I was delighted by the oddity of each of these strange tales. It is like you sit down in a forest, leaves rustle, and you see a striped tail and later on a shiny ear and woosh each animal is gone and you are like, huh, what the fuck was that?
I have to say that none of these stories made me want to visit Kenya or Tanzania but at the same time I was delighted by the oddity of each of these strange tales. It is like you sit down in a forest, leaves rustle, and you see a striped tail and later on a shiny ear and woosh each animal is gone and you are like, huh, what the fuck was that?
November 17, 2023
CN: Death of a spouse, domestic abuse, death penalty in a sci-fi context, incontinence, interpersonal violence, corruption, missing child, vigil over dying grandparent, infidelity
A mixed bag as is the usually the way with anthologies, but I've found some new authors that I'd like to read more from.
About half of these are excerpts from longer works rather than stand alone short stories. This makes more sense for some than for others.
There is also a lot less that I would think of as speculative fiction than the blurb on the back had led me to expect. It contains more snapshot of a life or a community style pieces with a couple of sci-fi/fantasy stories. I generally prefer that ratio of realism to genre but others may not.
A mixed bag as is the usually the way with anthologies, but I've found some new authors that I'd like to read more from.
About half of these are excerpts from longer works rather than stand alone short stories. This makes more sense for some than for others.
There is also a lot less that I would think of as speculative fiction than the blurb on the back had led me to expect. It contains more snapshot of a life or a community style pieces with a couple of sci-fi/fantasy stories. I generally prefer that ratio of realism to genre but others may not.
June 23, 2024
As with all collections of short stories, some were better than others and only some will stay with me. I loved this insight into Swahili storytelling, and life in Kenya and Tanzania. I am sure there is so much more depth I am missing because I lack much of the cultural context, but nevertheless I found most of the stories quite profound. My top two were “From Walenisi” and “From Selfishness”.
With some of the stories the translations seemed a bit inconsistent. One in particular had the most beautiful literary language in some parts and then some jarringly colloquial language in others. Probably this was intentional and was part of the original text, but I found it didn’t land for me.
With some of the stories the translations seemed a bit inconsistent. One in particular had the most beautiful literary language in some parts and then some jarringly colloquial language in others. Probably this was intentional and was part of the original text, but I found it didn’t land for me.
April 12, 2026
I’m really happy I picked this up at AWP, because I have never read any East African authors (as far as I can remember). The texts range lit fic to speculative, and some I enjoyed more than others. Some are uncomfortable because their topics are, such as Selfishness.
Some I really enjoyed—I especially like when they veered into science fiction and fantasy. The selection from Walenisi was really well chosen, and I’m definitely adding that to my “to read” list. I also really enjoyed A Neighbor’s Pot and Nagona, which got more than a little strange.
This edition looked really nice, and its short length makes it an ideal intro to these authors and traditions. Seventh book finished from AWP!
Some I really enjoyed—I especially like when they veered into science fiction and fantasy. The selection from Walenisi was really well chosen, and I’m definitely adding that to my “to read” list. I also really enjoyed A Neighbor’s Pot and Nagona, which got more than a little strange.
This edition looked really nice, and its short length makes it an ideal intro to these authors and traditions. Seventh book finished from AWP!
August 22, 2023
One of the most acute pleasures (and challenges) of reading fiction in translation from a language of an unfamiliar culture is that I never know how the story is going to turn, where the plot is heading. I often can't even tell whether the implied author supports the narrator's perspective or questions it in some way. A story holds so many surprises! It's a bewildering and exhilarating experience. I'm so grateful to Two Lines Press for publishing this delightful book of contemporary stories translated from Swahili. I've been really enjoying the creativity of their Calico anthology series.
September 4, 2023
These stories provide really interesting insight into Kenyan & Tanzanian culture and storytelling, showcasing a number of shorts stories and excerpts translated from Swahili. The stories, especially the excerpts, didn't necessarily engage me or stick with me as much as I would have wished, but they were still very interesting to try.
Content Warnings:
illness, kidnapping, torture, violence, injury, death, death of a family member, alcoholism, infidelity, loss of bodily autonomy, sexism, corrupt judicial system
Content Warnings:
illness, kidnapping, torture, violence, injury, death, death of a family member, alcoholism, infidelity, loss of bodily autonomy, sexism, corrupt judicial system
December 6, 2025
This was just an okay collection for me. Based on the description, I thought there'd be more scifi elements in the stories but most of them are contemporary-feeling.
I liked a couple (though several weeks later I can't recall the details of most - just one with a kidnapped child to another dimension and the other of a recently widowed woman whose relatives take over her home while she's grieving) but most of the stories weren't memorable enough. I am glad to have read a bit more from Eastern Africa, however (these were translated from Swahili specifically).
Gorgeous cover though.
I liked a couple (though several weeks later I can't recall the details of most - just one with a kidnapped child to another dimension and the other of a recently widowed woman whose relatives take over her home while she's grieving) but most of the stories weren't memorable enough. I am glad to have read a bit more from Eastern Africa, however (these were translated from Swahili specifically).
Gorgeous cover though.
July 20, 2023
I haven’t read a lot of East African writing so this was definitely interesting and there’s some good stuff in here. I will note however that the publisher is setting the authors up a little with the promotional copy, which seems to suggest that this is mainly a speculative anthology. Most of the stories aren’t noticeably speculative, so perhaps bear that in mind if you want to enjoy them on their actual merits.
June 27, 2023
This may be the first collection of stories translated from Swahili to English, and thus I give it five stars for simply existing. The stories have very little in common. None would be a must-read, but I'm glad to have read the collection.
January 2, 2024
”But ever since I lost my soul, I’ve stopped worrying about it.”
“How did you lose it?”
“I was ordered to clean it at a specific spot in the River of Eternal Life. It got away from me and the current carrier it off to the great ocean where dreams end.”
“How did you lose it?”
“I was ordered to clean it at a specific spot in the River of Eternal Life. It got away from me and the current carrier it off to the great ocean where dreams end.”
April 6, 2023
The stories were a mixed bag for me, but I really appreciated the collection as a whole. There were a few standouts, the first story in particular.
May 13, 2023
This is a wonderful collection of stories that made me eager to read the next, and the next. Until the book was done and I was wishing it were much longer.
July 15, 2023
Rating: 3.75
August 22, 2023
Book Group- stories translated from Swahili
March 6, 2024
Short stories translated from Kiswahili. Enjoyed the variety of stories.
July 24, 2024
Fun to read the stories Matt is teaching this summer!
December 21, 2024
The stories were too short. I need longer to feel connected to the plot. Some of them felt the right size for completing something though and I did like those!
March 20, 2025
I wanted to like this book so much because the concept is very cool, but none of the stories really grabbed me. I wish there was more of a through line/common theme with the short stories.
July 7, 2025
This is yet another fantastic entry in this series of translated works; this one contains Swahili stories.
October 21, 2025
3.5 stars
March 4, 2026
While every story or excerpt may not be the most compelling or profound, the opportunity to read East African fiction is rewarding enough for this short collection to be worthy of your time
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews