Accra Noir

Accra joins Lagos, Nairobi, Marrakech, and Addis Ababa in representing the African continent in the Noir Series arena.

The anthology Accra Noir edited by Nana-Ama Danquah captures the hustle of several distinctive neighborhoods of Ghana's capital.
--The Millions, included in Nadia Owusu's Year in Reading (2020)

Thirteen tales of the trouble people find in the capital city of Ghana when they're trying to make a buck...There's plenty of noir to go around in this all-too-sad volume about people struggling to get by.
--Kirkus Reviews, Starred review

This spine-chilling 13-story collection offers an opportunity to 'consider the context, beware of a pretext, search for a subtext' on living--and dying--in a major metropolis consumed by poverty and desperation.
--Shelf Awareness for Readers, STARRED Review

Superb...Each story reaffirms how fundamental 'place' is to the noir genre and how the locale shapes the story as much as the characters themselves...Strongly recommended.
--Library Journal

This welcome volume in the Akashic noir series, set in Ghana, hits plenty of the expected bleak notes and classical noirish phrasings.
--Publishers Weekly

There's good writing as well as a strong sense of place and culture, and the reader will absorb a side of Accra that doesn't make it into the tourist brochures.
--New York Journal of Books

Within this new book, the authors who share their many stories do so in a much revealing way about Accra, a city of allegories, one of the most dynamic and diverse places in the world.
--Exclusive Magazine

"I was blown away by these stories, and would encourage lovers of noir fiction to try these out. They are gritty enough to fill your noir needs."
--The Cyberlibrarian

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.

Brand-new stories by: Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, Kwame Dawes, Adjoa Twum, Kofi Blankson Ocansey, Billie McTernan, Ernest Kwame Nkrumah Addo, Patrick Smith, Anne Sackey, Gbontwi Anyetei, Nana-Ama Danquah, Ayesha Harruna Attah, Eibhlín Ní Chléirigh, and Anna Bossman.

From the introduction by Nana-Ama Danquah:

Accra is the perfect setting for noir fiction. The telling of such tales--ones involving or suggesting death, with a protagonist who is flawed or devious, driven by either a self-serving motive or one of the seven deadly sins--is woven into the fabric of the city's everyday life...

Accra is more than just a capital city. It is a microcosm of Ghana. It is a virtual map of the nation's soul, a complex geographical display of its indigenous presence, the colonial imposition, declarations of freedom, followed by coups d'état, decades of dictatorship, and then, finally, a steady march forward into a promising future...

Much like Accra, these stories are not always what they seem. The contributors who penned them know too well how to spin a story into a web...It is an honor and a pleasure to share them and all they reveal about Accra, a city of allegories, one of the most dynamic and diverse places in the world.

Author: Nana-Ama Danquah
Publisher: Akashic Books
Published: 12/01/2020
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.20w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781617758898


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 10/26/2020
Kirkus Reviews 10/01/2020
Library Journal 12/01/2020 pg. 66
Shelf Awareness 12/29/2020

About the Author

Nana-Ama Danquah was born in Accra, Ghana, and raised in the United States. She is the author of the memoir Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression, and the editor of three anthologies: Becoming American, Shaking the Tree, and The Black Body. Her essays, fiction, and poetry have been widely anthologized, and she has written for numerous magazines, journals, and newspapers, including Essence, Allure, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. During her tenure as an international speechwriter for the president of Ghana, the addresses she penned were delivered at the United Nations General Assembly, the African Union, the Palace of Westminster, the University of Oxford, and Harvard University. She has taught at Otis College of Arts and Sciences, Antioch University, Los Angeles, and the University of Ghana, Legon. She splits her time between Accra and Los Angeles, and has one daughter, the actress and writer Korama Danquah.