Works
SONGS of BENJAMIN is a collection of poetic pieces inspired by Biblical characters, with profound observations that collectively form a gripping homage to Jesus as Creator and Messiah. While employing an alternate rhyming scheme throughout, the structure of the various poems in this collection refreshingly defies convention and in substance offers an insightful vista into the deep and spectral array of agape love. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, from law to grace, the language is by turns poetic and accessible, narrational and poignantly descriptive. The collection touches on an eclectic group of Biblical personalities including Abraham, Moses, Deborah, Esther, John the Baptist, Mary (mother of Jesus), Mary Magdalene, Paul, and others. Springing from a place as deep as it is inspired, these vignettes become an ultimate homage to Jesus.
"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." –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. Faced with a redemptive option in the face of potential calamity, their ultimate choices illustrate what Kwakye labels the ethnicity of our humanity and posits that love can, and must, speak to all.
Songs of a Jealous Wind (2018)
The Count's False Banquet (2017)
Benjamin Kwakye concludes his trilogy on the modern African migrant’s experience in America with another dazzling medley of language, plot and outreach to our common humanity. In this final instalment, Count Tutu leaves his native Ghana for the United States seeking the feast of the famed American Dream. His anticipated banquet of dreams sours, however, when he is at once welcomed and rejected, torn by external and internal conflicts, soothed by the promise of romance (both literal and figurative), and inflicted with other deep emotional wounds with far reaching consequences. With the spacious array of the immigrant experience for a canvass, The Count’s False Banquet paints an impressive portrait of the pain of self-imposed banishment from home, the contradictory inescapable boundlessness and restrictions of longing, hope and desire, and the expansiveness of human will.
Soul to Song (2017)
The Three Books of Shama (2016)
The Executioner's Confession (2015)
Scrolls of the Living Night (2015)
“Kwakye's evocative blend of detail, memory, stories, characters and lyrical commentary makes this book an ambitious project that will have a lasting impact on the reader. Traditional and modern Ghanaian/African culture clash in this courageous adventure rich with memorable characters, myths, places and sophisticated language.”
Eyes of the Slain Woman (2011)
The Other Crucifix (2010)
An epic novel on the African immigrant experience.