Double Wahala Double Trouble is a collection of eleven stories by Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike, an award-winning poet, short story writer, children’s novelist, and literary scholar. Umezurike is a columnist for Nigerian Parenting Magazine. Double Wahala Double Trouble will be published by Griots Lounge Publishing, Canada in November 2021. Here is the synopsis of the short story collection:
A woman chops off her finger to demonstrate her fidelity to her lover. A mother loses her mind upon discovering that her husband has left her and their only child. An artist seeks to unravel why his neighbour’s face enchants him. A passenger on a bus serves as an emissary of death. Meet some of the characters in Double Wahala Double Trouble, a collection of eleven stories by the award-winning poet, short story writer, children’s novelist, and literary scholar. In this stunning collection, Umezurike lures the reader into a journey of the absurd and the grisly to show us men and women struggling to live, desire, love, and thrive against the eddy of troubles in their world.
Umezurike also has another book, a children’s book titled Wish Maker that is forthcoming from Masobe Books in December 2021. Umezurike holds a PhD in English from the University of Alberta. An alumnus of the International Writing Program, Iowa, USA, Umezurike is a recipient of the James Patrick Folinsbee Memorial Scholarship in Creative Writing from the University of Alberta and the Norma Epstein Foundation Award for Creative Writing from the University of Toronto, among many honours. He is a co-editor of Wreaths for a Wayfarer, an anthology of poems. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta.
Praise for Double Wahala Double Trouble
“Umezurike’s stories are full of wondrous gifts: a poet’s ear for language, a depth of insight into the souls of memorable characters straining against often implacable fate and other forces, and a propulsive energy that keeps the reader riveted. He’s a delight to discover!”
- Okey Ndibe, author of Foreign Gods, Inc. and Arrows of Rain
“With playful, vivid language, these vibrant stories capture the dreamlike—sometimes nightmarish—poetry of the everyday. A captivating read.”
- Henrietta Rose-Innes, author of Nineveh
“This bristling collection of short stories had me entirely riveted and struck by their crafted imagery and bold emotional complexity. Several stories have young first-person narrators haunted by relatives now distressingly absent due to social breakage or illness, or whose parents are ferociously present, intrusive, needing to pass on a habit of masculinity as brutality. Others set in the third person introduce couples, neighbours, scam artists and competitors playing out schisms of distrust and self-protection, in concrete village/urban settings fueled by fantastic dialogue and a constant electric edge of the intimate body held in its own defense. A wonderful, impressive read.”
— Margaret Christakos, author of Dear Birch.
“Double Wahala, Double Trouble does everything a work of fiction should do—shock and impress at the same time. Each story here is beautifully crafted, with characters that will linger in the reader’s mind long after the reading. Umezurike is a writer with a bright future.”
- Helon Habila, author of Travellers
“Each of Umezurike’s stories leads the reader down a comfortable path, until it is abruptly uncomfortable. His consistent skill in twisting plot lines and the driving needs of his characters is rare in short story collections, no matter where they take place. Lost family, betrayals, the idea—and illusion—of home, and grand, fierce gestures of love flow through this book. Reader: let these outstanding stories wash over you.”
- Kimmy Beach, author of Nuala: A Fable
Double Wahala, Double Trouble, is a poetic, gripping, mesmerizing, inventive, and
deeply entertaining collection of short stories that cracks open a world that is hidden in the darkest corners of everyday human life. These stories convey Umezurike’s brilliance in building suspense and his great vision in exploring complex moral issues of love, identity, family, human relations, memory, and dislocation.
- Niq Mhlongo, author of Paradise in Gaza
“In these compelling stories, Umezurike limns the lives of ordinary people trying to survive whichever way they can. Whether he is writing about a lover who makes a disturbing and unexpected sacrifice to secure her love or a man who loses his life in a case of mistaken identity, Umezurike’s prose shines like something very carefully polished.”
- Chika Unigwe, author of Better Never Than Late
Double Wahala tells stories of love, pain, and compassion in a broken world. Under the deft hand of Umezurike, it is clear humanity faces a bleak future unless we address the terrible legacies of colonialism, war, and toxic masculinity.
- Peter Midgley, let us not think of them as barbarians
At once funny and painfully real, Double Wahala Double Trouble shows that Umezurike has mastered the art of subtly capturing the nuances of domestic brutality in sparse yet resonant prose. A masterfully delivered collection.
—Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, author of Dreams and Assorted Nightmares
“These are stories with heft, powerfully told. When you leave these stories, the stories don’t leave you.”
—E.C. Osondu, author of Alien Stories.
To preorder this fantastic book, go to: https://griotslounge.ca/f/forthcoming-title-double-wahala-double-trouble