Cheney-Coker surveys his native land, Sierra Leone, the desert, poverty, and childhood in this slim collection of poems from Heinemann. Drawing upon his life in poetry, Cheney-Coker deftly meshes West African imagery with a rich Western poetical tradition.

This book is a singular achievement in African literature. It is rich in plot and detail, combining centuries of West African history and politics with magical realism and fantasy. The tragedies, hopes and successes of families and individuals form the story of a nation that borders on the fantastic, but is firmly pinned to reality by the facts and historical details of a West African nation. The book is a slow read but is immensely rewarding for its gentle poetic rhythm as well as for the sheer imaginativeness of the plot.

For pure self-aware emotion, one cannot go wrong with Sierra Leoneon poet Syl Cheney-Coker's slim volume. Cheney-Coker laments his race, his ethnicity, his religion, his nation, his world in language which is at once shocking and poignant.