Repeating Islands

The Best African American Fiction 2010, a volume edited by Gerald Early and Nikki Giovanni (Ballantine/One World), does an outstanding job of choosing important and stirring short stories and novel excerpts from outstanding authors for this second volume in the series. Ranging from historical to contemporary pieces that cover African and multicultural issues, the standouts are many: Maria Eliza Hamilton Abegunde’s “The Ariran’s Last Life,” the reflections of a former African slave; Desiree Cooper’s tale of a pregnant Detroit wife who fears a terrifying “Night Coming”; Edwidge Danticat’s inspired story “Ghosts,” which evokes life in Haiti; Glenville Lovell’s “Out of Body,” about the brutal awakening of an undertaker’s son; Jewell Parker Rhodes’s African vampire-haunted “Yellow Moon,” a novel excerpt about Dr. Marie Levant, descendant of voodoo queen Marie Laveau; Colson Whitehead’s wonderfully rueful BB gun memory, “The Gangsters”; and Dorothy Sterling’s poignant novel excerpt, “Mary Jane.” The collection gives a glorious overview of black literature published in 2010 in a volume that’s not to be missed.