Maddening Behaviors: Some I Hear, A Lot I See

About the Book

Eleven young women leave America to find adventure in Africa. Seeking magic, purpose, and friendship they settle with 'host' families in the villages and urban centers of South Africa and Mozambique. While staying in the home of a mixed-race Cape Town family, Shaquan's perception of black solidarity is shaken to its core. Jaha, while surprising her lover on a trip, is shocked to find that the love and lover she thought were hers have drastically transformed. Instead of a carefree weekend in the resort of Sun City, Kano is confronted with the harsh legacy of the struggle against Apartheid by a demure waitress in the resort's restaurant. A joyous wedding shower for a group of former women revolutionaries is too much to bear for Portia, pushing her to resort to desperate measures in order to prove her worth. For these women and others, misunderstanding, grace, tragedy, and truth are revealed when they least expect it. Set in the 1990s, the stories of the women in Maddening Behaviors show the hilarity and tragedy that occur because of the foreign eye's perceptions and limitations-an eye that is often at odds with what is real and what is fantasy.

About the Author

Tahra Nichols is an anthropologist, writer, and graduate of Spelman College. This is her first collection of short stories.