Audiobooks narrated by Christel Mutombo

A Place Between Waking & Forgetting Audiobook

"A Place Between Waking & Forgetting is dark speculative fiction, an Afro-Irreal collection in which transformative stories of culture, diversity, climate change, unlimited futures, collisions of worlds, mythology, and more, inhabit. It cases black people stories in bold and evocative text, at times deeply flawed but potentially redeemable protagonists in rich hues of blackness and light. Something beautiful, something dark in lyrical language packed with affection, dread, anguish and hope. Featuring the World Fantasy Award finalist story “The Devil Don’t Come With Horns”, this collection of short stories is the latest offering by a genre-bending, multi-award winner. It arrives with a poetic introduction by award-winning writer and poet Linda D. Addison, the first African-American recipient of the world-renowned HWA Bram Stoker Award, and has received five awards for her collections. Addison has been honored with the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award, HWA Mentor of the Year and SFPA Grand Master of Fantastic Poetry. “These 18 impressive speculative shorts from Bacon (Serengotti) nimbly traverse subgenres while combining rich magic and mythology with a sharp exploration of what it means to be African both in and away from Africa.”—Publishers Weekly"

Eugen Bacon (Author), Christel Mutombo, Kofi Boakye (Narrator)

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She Called Me Woman: Nigeria's Queer Women Speak

"“We decided to put together this collection of thirty narratives to correct the invisibility, the confusion, the caricaturizing and the writing out of history.” This stirring and intimate collection brings together 30 unique narratives to paint a vivid portrait of what it means to be a queer Nigerian woman. Covering an array of experiences—the joy and excitement of first love, the agony of lost love and betrayal, the sometimes-fraught relationship between sexuality and spirituality, addiction and suicide, childhood games and laughter—She Called Me Woman sheds light on how Nigerian queer women, despite their differences, attempt to build a life together in a climate of fear. Through first-hand accounts, She Called Me Woman challenges us to rethink what it means to be a Nigerian ‘woman’, negotiating relationships, money, sexuality and freedom, identifying outside the gender binary, and the difficulties of achieving hopes and dreams under the constraints of societal expectations and legal terrorism. She Called Me Woman is full of beautifully told stories of resistance and resilience, joy and laughter, heartbreaks and victories, collecting the realities of a community that will no longer be invisible."

Azeenarh Mohammed, Chitra Nagarajen, Rafeeat Aliyu (Author), Carol Nuga, Christel Mutombo (Narrator)

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Scatterlings: A Novel

"A BEST NEW BOOK from *Vanity Fair *The Root *Vulture *People *The Washington Post *Christian Science Monitor *Los Angeles Times *Essence A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice Pick! A New Yorker Best Book of the Year! A lyrical, moving novel in the spirit of Transcendent Kingdom and A Burning—and the most awarded debut title in South Africa—that tells the story of a multiracial family when the Immorality Act is passed, revealing the story of one family’s scattered souls in the wake of history. In 1927, South Africa passes the Immorality Act, prohibiting sexual intercourse between “Europeans” (white people) and “natives” (Black people). Those who break the draconian new law face imprisonment—for men of up to five years; for women, four years. Abram and his wife Alisa have their share of marital problems, but they also have a comfortable life in South Africa with their two young girls. But then the Act is passed. Alisa is black, and their two children are now evidence of their involvement in a union that has been criminalized by the state. At first, Alisa and Abram question how they’ll be affected by the Act, but then officials start asking questions at the girls’ school, and their estate is catalogued for potential disbursement. Abram is at a loss as to how to protect his young family from the grinding machinery of the law, whose worst discriminations have until now been kept at bay by the family’s economic privilege. And with this, his hesitation, the couple’s bond is tattered. Alisa, who is Jamaican and the descendant of slaves, was adopted by a wealthy white British couple, who raised her as their child. But as she grew older and realized that the prejudices of British society made no allowance for her, she journeyed to South Africa where she met Abram. In the aftermath of the Immorality Act, she comes to a heartbreaking conclusion based on her past and collective history – and she commits her own devastating act, one that will reverberate through their entire family’s lives. Intertwining her storytelling with ritual, myth, and the heart-wrenching question of who stays and who leaves, Scatterlings marks the debut of a gifted storyteller who has become a sensation in her native South Africa—and promises to take the Western literary world by storm as well."

Resoketswe Martha Manenzhe (Author), Christel Mutombo (Narrator)

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Things They Lost

"Ayosa is a wandering spirit – joyous, exuberant, filled to the brim with longing. Her only companions in the Kenyan town she calls home are as lonely as Ayosa herself: the ghostly Fatumas, the sullen milkman and Sindano, the owner of a café that no one ever visits. But a curse hangs over the women in Ayosa’s family, a curse which has blighted the life of her mother, Nabumbo Promise. When her new friend Mbui offers her an alternative life, one that would involve leaving Nabumbo Promise behind, Ayosa must decide how much she owes her fearsome, mercurial mama. Set at the intersection of the spirit world and the human one, suffused with Kenyan folklore and myth, Things They Lost is an unforgettable novel about mothers and daughters, about ghostly longing and about love at its most intoxicating and dangerous, from a standout new literary voice. 'A wondrous newborn - mewling, dewy, twinkling, gurgling a tale steeped in the acrid surrealism of childhood, populated by wicked wraiths and held together by the vicious spell mothers can cast on their daughters.' ? Leila Aboulela, author of Bird Summons 'A narrative so profound, its humour shining so bright, that you’d think the author had written hundreds of books to have mastered the art of perpetual storytelling. A stunning debut!' -- Onyeka Nwelue, author of The Strangers of Braamfontein 'From the start, Oduor – a winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, among other honours – broadcasts her tremendous talents... Come for the beguiling narrative, and stay for the rich, evocative language.' -- Vulture 'A coming-of-age tale that deftly refuses to play magic realism straight, Okwiri Oduor's Things they Lost blends the phantasmagoria of Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard with the deadpan, wry humour of Bolaño. A welcome new Kenyan voice.' -- Olufemi Terry, author of Stickfighting Days 'Otherworldly, unconventional, delectably surreal. One of the most magical and exhilarating introductions to a main character. Okwiri has taken language, sculpted something new and splendid out of it to deliver to the world. An array of some of the most memorable 'in-between-worlds' characters enter the literary world from Mapeli Town with aplomb. What a debut! What a gift!' -- Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, author of The Dragonfly Sea"

Okwiri Oduor (Author), Christel Mutombo (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Christel Mutombo