'the time story' by chimamanda n adichie

An American man meets a Nigerian woman at an Amish market, what next? The two are characters in a new short story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - published in the current issue of Per Contra, an online journal. There is also an interview with the author of Purple Hibiscus. Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, will be published later this year.

The market smelled liked hay. It was busy for a Saturday mid-morning, people milling around the tables of fruits and vegetables and meat and seafood and nuts. He bumped into her near the tomato stand because he was veering to avoid a man racing down the cramped aisle with a cart full of yellow squashes. Her plastic shopping basket fell and they both bent down for it. He touched it first, picked it up. Her shoulder almost grazed his. Her hair, a mass of tiny braids, fell across her face and she pushed it back as she straightened up.

- continue reading The Time Story here.


Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with Alex Agyei-Agyiri, author of Unexpected Joy at Dawn
Photo: taken at the British Library, 16 October 2005