Author Munashe Kaseke was born in Harare, immigrated to the U.S., and lives and works in Northern California. She makes the inspiration for her debut collection of fiction, SEND HER BACK AND OTHER STORIES, clear in a “From the Author” note at the end of the book: a combination of feeling overwhelmed by the rising xenophobic sentiment in the country and the explicit chants of “Send Her Back!” aimed at U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar in 2019 (echoed most prominently in the title story). Kaseke traveled to South Africa and Zimbabwe to take a break from the toxic environment in the U.S., and wrote most of the stories in this collection during that time.

The stories contained in the book are all connected by Zimbabwean culture, the Shona language, and the immigrant experience. The best of them offer not just a sense of what it’s like to be African in the modern U.S., but also a sense of the emotional and physical impact of leaving your family and taking on all new experiences and new responsibilities. At the same time, they also paint a portrait of flawed, beautiful characters who have to reach deep within themselves to find strength, or empathy, or hope. The stories often explore aspects of the diaspora that aren’t often considered by those outside the experience.

In “The Collector of Degrees,” a brilliant, hard-working woman finds herself on an endless, exhausting treadmill of earning more and more advanced degrees at affordable community colleges in order to maintain her immigration status, a process that leaves her robbed of any chance at true forward motion. In “Tsoro,” a smart, accomplished executive navigates the bland racism and sexism of new colleagues while plotting to use their weaknesses against them and claim an enormous bonus. In “Imported Husband,” a Zimbabwean immigrant struggles when she is reunited with her husband after a decade apart—she is now comfortable with her American life, while he insists on playing a traditional male role and becomes an embarrassment to her in both public and private.

One of the best stories here is “The Zimbabwean Dream,” in which a young woman struggles to keep up with her family’s demands that she send more and more money home to them, believing her to be a huge American success when in fact she lost her college scholarship and has been working slave wages for years just to survive. The dynamic of a family treating their own blood cruelly because of what they assume to be her selfishness is heartbreaking, and the ending is a short, sharp shock that reverberates long after you finish reading.

Not all of Kaseke’s stories are so successful. A few suffer from a lack of an ending, trailing off almost into an ellipses as if the author had simply run out of steam and saved their manuscript. And others feature thinly-drawn characters, like “Not So Micro,” which details a woman’s dreadful experience at a party filled with “Midwestern Nice”-style racists who genuinely believe they are “woke” and supportive while being incredibly rude and ignorant. Neither the awful white folks at the party or the main character exhibiting the patience of a saint are developed into more than one-note caricatures, leaving the story flat and uninteresting despite the potential tension in the premise. More stories hit than miss, however, and even the misses are written with verve and sharp observation. Kaseke has a voice and the talent to express it, and readers will no doubt hear from her again, and be better for it.

Writing with clear, urgent prose, Munashe Kaseke’s stories in SEND HER BACK AND OTHER STORIES are well-crafted and offer glimpses of immigrant life in the U.S. and Zimbabwean culture.

~Jeff Somers for IndieReader