Letters from the Edge

Letters from the Edge is a powerful collection in which women home in on the nuances and resonances of everyday life and culture in twelve remote locations. Each author's collected letters provide unique insight into what life is like in places we can often only dream about visiting, such as the frozen steppes of Mongolia; the sprawling, hot hustle of Lagos, Nigeria; and the rainforested mountain slopes of Colombia.The book contains brief biographies on each author and profiles each country's political situation at the time of writing and up to the present day. It is punctuated throughout with black-and-white illustrations.

Letters from Mawere (Zimbabwe): 1986-1987
About Yvonne Burgess	p. 11
Changes in Zimbabwe	p. 11
Golden eggs	p. 13
Calling cards	p. 14
Pendulum swings	p. 16
A fine art	p. 17
Upon this rock	p. 20
The woman in green	p. 21
Dancing under the full moon	p. 23
Evening conversation	p. 25
Speaking truth to fear	p. 27
Bulawayo to Birmingham	p. 29
Letters from the Yellow River (China): 1988-1989
About Carol Davis	p. 31
Changes in China	p. 31
Sea slugs and monkey brains	p. 33
Rise and shine	p. 34
Minding your own business	p. 36
Vibrate the Universe!	p. 37
Sleeping in cars	p. 39
Jumping the queue	p. 40
Children of the moon	p. 42
Trashing the past	p. 44
Reaching for the sky	p. 45
Little emperors revisited	p. 47
Letters from La Paz (Bolivia): 1989-1990
About Susanna Rance	p. 49
Changes in Bolivia	p. 49
A style of death	p. 51
Spiritual food	p. 52
Bread for the living, bread for the dead	p. 54
Over the border	p. 56
Trashing lives	p. 58
Tickets to salvation	p. 60
Mother tongue, fatherland	p. 61
Becoming a person	p. 63
Calling the spirit	p. 65
Shaking the sorrows away	p. 67
Letters from Tamil Nadu (India): 1991-1992
About Mari Marcel Thekaekara	p. 69
Changes in India	p. 69
In silence and in shame	p. 71
People and other pests	p. 72
Born to shovel shit	p. 74
Meat matters	p. 76
Killer drugs	p. 78
The time trap	p. 80
The wisdom of sages	p. 82
Restructuring the poor	p. 84
They're singing our song	p. 85
No requiem for Rajkumari	p. 87
Letters from Lahore (Pakistan): 1992-1993
About Maria del Nevo	p. 91
Changes in Pakistan	p. 91
The sari's curse	p. 93
Heavy shadow	p. 95
Caught in the web	p. 97
The burned bride	p. 99
Wretched of the earth	p. 101
A lesson too late	p. 103
A suitable arrangement	p. 104
You can fly it!	p. 106
Sperm in the market	p. 108
Dupatta or not dupatta	p. 110
Letters from Lagos (Nigeria): 1993-1995
About Elizabeth Obadina	p. 113
Changes in Nigeria	p. 113
What's in a name?	p. 115
A way with waste	p. 117
No hair for Josie	p. 118
Siren values	p. 120
Vanity Fair	p. 122
Blood money	p. 124
Your money or your bank	p. 126
Shadow boxing	p. 128
Phoning for democracy	p. 130
A gust of pure evil	p. 132
Letters from Russia and Chechnya: 1995-1997
About Olivia Ward	p. 135
Changes in Russia (and Chechnya)	p. 135
The honest colonel	p. 137
Walnuts and sunflower seeds	p. 138
Love and pies at the Usinsk Cafe	p. 140
The future is rising	p. 142
Mountains and miracles	p. 144
Dzhamilla's degree	p. 146
Stalemate	p. 147
Crystal glasses and kidnapped wives	p. 149
Business as usual	p. 151
Dust and memories	p. 153
Letters from Atlantis (Colombia): 1997-1998
About Jenny James	p. 155
Changes in Colombia	p. 155
An avalanche of love	p. 157
Monkey business	p. 159
Natural causes	p. 160
Going home	p. 162
Killing connections	p. 164
Of poppies, plantations and parents	p. 166
Our children's blood	p. 167
Letters from Tsengel (Mongolia): 1998-1999
About Louisa Waugh	p. 171
Changes in Mongolia	p. 171
Mother Rock	p. 173
Tuya's tale	p. 175
Journey to the end of the earth	p. 176
The death of Kalim	p. 178
Tea and delight	p. 180
A frozen world	p. 182
In the eye of the beholder	p. 184
A sheep for the Shaman	p. 185
A month in the country	p. 187
Going home	p. 189
Letters from Beirut (Lebanon): 1999-2006
About Reem Haddad	p. 191
Changes in Lebanon	p. 191
Candles, courtesy of Israel	p. 193
Across the fence	p. 195
Neighborly love	p. 197
A visitor in the mountains	p. 199
Heart's desire	p. 201
The perfect wife	p. 202
Taking the veil	p. 204
Worlds of words	p. 206
Fundamental flaws	p. 208
Life lessons	p. 210
Written in the stars	p. 212
Motherland	p. 214
Speaking in tongues	p. 216
Running out of lies	p. 218
Letters from Bambous (Mauritius): 2006-2007
About Lindsey Collen	p. 221
Changes in Mauritius	p. 221
A yellow flag in the sunset	p. 223
The slide of sugar	p. 224
'I see a human being'	p. 226
The breadfruit tree	p. 228
Empire's exiles	p. 230
To a place of healing	p. 232
Tongue twisters	p. 234
Fetching grass	p. 236
Where the streets have no shame	p. 237
Of robbers and planners	p. 239
Letters from Cairo (Egypt): 2007-2008
About Maria Golia	p. 241
Changes in Egypt	p. 241
'We can take it'	p. 243
A marriage of convenience	p. 245
The thinness of things	p. 247
A bag of lemons	p. 249
A world apart	p. 250
Turn, turn, turn	p. 253
Beyond nature	p. 255
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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