2021 African Literature Association's Book of the Year Award—Creative Writing
"Benjamin Kwakye's Obsessions of Paradise is a very clever novel about human inter-connectedness and the power of love. The cleverness lies partly in the presentation of the two major and parallel experiences and the way in which they are brought together at the end… in a consistently subtle and evocative writing style. Obsessions of Paradise is a compelling and suspenseful page-turner." — African Literature Association Citation for Book of the Year Award
"The tales of these couples—Ama and Shem, Maud and George—seem starkly different, but their futures are all bound up together in this novel that explores the interconnected modern world. Kwakye's (Songs of a Jealous Wind, 2018, etc.) prose finds the tension in the strangeness of place… a bubbling mysteriousness rooted in desire and longing will propel readers ever deeper into this idiosyncratic story... An oddly compelling tale of two connected couples separated by geography and culture." — Kirkus Reviews
With a keen focus on the strains of both voluntary and forced relocations, this novel blends the divergent experiences of various nationals into a coherent voice of love. Obsessions of Paradise chronicles the oft dehumanizing odyssey of migrants in search of hope, at the same time as it is a tender story of insecure but compelling love. Ama, a Ghanaian doctor based in the United States, is entangled in an improbable if compelling relationship with the destitute Shem. As their relationship dangles on the tightrope of social stigma, another one that seems surefooted is developing between Maud, a London doctor whose family fled Zimbabwe after persecution over land disputes, and George, a local businessman with international connections who flirts with racial politics. The men embark on fate altering journeys to Libya, one in hope of a better life, the other to promote business interests. In Libya, the doctors will confront each other and their men in ways none of them would have imagined. Amid the shock of encountering human-trafficking, and faced with a redemptive option in the face of potential calamity, their ultimate choices illustrate what Kwakye labels the ethnicity of our humanity and demonstrate that love can, and must, speak to all.
Shimmering at Sunset: New Stories from Africa (Cissus World Press, 2021)