Chairman of Fools explores the plight of Farai Chari, a supposedly successful writer, professor and self-acclaimed artist, living in an African culture in which tradition weighs heavy and middle class aspirations are crude. Farai yearns for a world in which men and women can freely associate with one another and gratify their passions without moral chastisement.

In this new collection, Chioniso and other stories, we are once again reminded how Shimmer Chinodya mines his experience for nuggets. Playing with his doppelganger, Godfrey, he looks back on life in Harare, and in Zimbabwe, over the last decade, exploring it from a familial perspective. How does a father cope with a rebellious daughter or a wife he perceives as wayward? How does one mediate traditional gender roles? What to do when status in the form of a car undermines the stability of a marriage? How does one manage a friendship with a new farmer? What moral compromises are demanded by new...