Set in Lesotho and South Africa, Courtney McDermott’s debut story collection unveils a perspective of African life that is both startling and intimate. An Afrikaner woman sleeps with a shotgun because she fears black Africans, an undead garbage man “saves” lives by taking them, a modern day Cinderella struggles to escape the bitter residual constraints of colonialism. These twenty-two tales embrace graphic realism, energetic bursts of truths that may otherwise go unnoticed, and magic.