A Bed on Bricks - by Mel Kelly (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"A rare combination of talents. [Kelly] has an extremely clear view of the world and all that is to be human. And she has the brilliant craftsmanship to record it all with the kindness, beauty and care we all deserve." --Kalahari Review

An academic encounters unusual findings. A too-kind school teacher gets drawn into a drama not of his making. Ambitious filmmakers go in search of (mis)adventure. Children encounter puberty. Cross-continental lovers slowly drift apart.

In nine beautifully realized stories, Kelly charts the complex psychological journeys of everyday people, fumbling for one another across divides of culture, age, gender, class, sexuality, and race. Meaty and cliché-rupturing, A Bed on Bricks offers difficult but profound truths about human nature and relationships, driven by characters as rich and diverse as the African landscapes they inhabit.

About the Author

Mel KELLY is originally from Manchester, England. She worked at London Zoo as a senior keeper and then in veterinary nursing before going on to study film theory. An English-language editor and writer since arriving in Windhoek, Namibia in 1998, she also manages a small-scale women's upcycling project, Sew Good Namibia. Her fiction has appeared in the Kalahari Review and she has contributed regular opinion pieces to The Namibian newspaper on social, cultural, and economic issues.