Man of the House and other new short stories from Kenya, Edited by Emma Dawson Sadu is a street-smart teenager who touts for matatu passengers but dreams of becoming a millionaire and buying a Lexus. Steve can’t come to terms with his brother Gordo’s death and doesn’t know how to relate to the dead man’s pregnant wife. Laurence walks away from a violent past but cannot escape the demons in his head.

As you wander through the worlds depicted in this anthology, these Kenyans, and others, will be your guides. You will travel to the slums of Kangemi, join a tense dinner party in Karen, and visit a reality show called KaSlum-o Kashillionare.

As with any anthology, the quality varies and the editing could have been tighter but the book’s strength lies in the authenticity of the voices: the characters’ laughter, screams and quiet musings bring these myriad worlds to life in the 15 stories. The writers include established names like Stanley and Muthoni as well as students and journalists.

“It’s an exciting time for Kenyan writing,” says editor editor Emma Dawson , who lectures at Keele University in Britain. “They’ve comethrough their election strife and there’s now a burst of people expressing the new Kenya.”

“Man of the House”, which tells Sadu’s tale, is by former gardener Gazemba, whose novel The Stone Hills of Maragoli won the 2003 Jomo Kenyatta Prize. Gazemba captures that aching gap between dreams and reality. “Screaming Thunder”, by Alison O. Owuor, describes Laurence’s struggle to escape the devils of his past. In this lyrical if tragic tale, Owuor skillfully illuminates the beauty and horror in the ordinary. Pasomi Mucha creates

compelling characters in “Three Sides of a Coin” and in “Square Peg, Round Hole”, Suhaila Karim introduces Raia, a Kenyan of Arab descent who feels alienated in Nairobi.

One can quibble about the technical finesse of some of the stories, but this anthology offers readers a lively, emotional and honest trip through today’s Kenya. It is published by CCC Press and can be bought online at www.new-ventures.net.