Hitting Trees with Sticks

Jane Rogers

Across a range of short stories, Jane Rogers confronts how we deal with that incurable disease, life. These stories show us for what we are - petulant, stubborn, foolish, proud and downright difficult, but also adventurous, kind, concerned, loving and hopeful. They demonstrate the African concept, Ubuntu, which can translate as "I am a person because I live in a community". Jane Rogers shows that the only cure for life is living.

Extract

And then there's the problem of food. All those meals she cooked for me and Tim, all that good healthy fare: roast lamb with brussels and carrots from the garden, and gravy; shepherds pie; fresh cod coated in crushed cornflakes; apple turnovers with baked custard. She made everything. Pastry, bread, jam, the curtains, the tea cosy and my cousins' clothes. So I forsake the freezer and the microwave and buy fresh chicken breasts and lamb chops.

Parallels