{"product_id":"the-waiting-1","title":"Martin Egblewogbe: The Waiting [2020] paperback","description":"A largely allegorical exploration of the loneliness of an existence based on an alien world-view, Martin Egblewogbe's The Waiting is a collection rooted in metropolitan Ghana, but its primary territory is the human mind. Juxtaposing his training as a physicist against his curiosity about local myth, he creates a universe that's both entertaining and erudite. In A Photograph of K \u0026amp; S, Smiling, a completely self-obsessed man, returned home after his father's death, attempts to explain away his unremarkable life based on one perceived slight from his youth; in The Gonjon Pin (title story for the 2014 Caine Prize anthology) a genius working on a program to predict lottery numbers is stumped by the appearance of an intruder's disembodied genitals on the wall of his computer engine room; The Making, Rain and Back to the Halls explore futility in different ways, while Atta explores life after death - a theme that reoccurs in a much bleaker guise in The Crwoling Caterpillar. Often Kafkaesque in its isolation of characters and a pervading sense of powerlessness, The Waiting nevertheless maintains a constant hum of humour, nowhere more so than in The Going Down of Pastor Mintumi - in which a pastor who has discovered the pleasures of the flesh late in life overindulges with hilarious consequences. The title story, The Waiting, is judgement day in a twisted mind, filled with the kinds of questions that haunt a life on earth, which, ultimately, is the quest of all art.","brand":"Egblewogbe, Martin","offers":[{"title":"Very Good","offer_id":48128936018259,"sku":"XV80954157074","price":5.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0616\/4001\/6057\/files\/egblewogbe-martin-the-waiting-xv80954157074-55857321967955.jpg?v=1715203206","url":"https:\/\/theirishbookshop.live\/products\/the-waiting-1","provider":"Chapters Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}